By: Motlabana Monnakgotla
Teamwork, silence, a rattling ball and constant communication helped a visually impaired team win a tournament in a bustling city.
Blind football, a Paralympic sport designed for visually impaired athletes, is being championed by The Corinthians Africa, a Johannesburg-based non-profit organisation (NPO) that uses soccer and other programmes to transform lives in marginalised communities.
On this day, the NPO was in Jeppestown, a suburb in eastern Johannesburg. Historically diverse in architecture and once an industrial hub, the area is now a community grappling with unemployment and neglect. It provided the backdrop for the city’s first Ekasi Blind Football Champions Tournament, hosted at the Bertha Solomons Recreation Centre on 7 March 2026.
As KBNN arrived, Corinthians Blind Football Club (FC) were already leading 2–0 against Thupa Stars FC. We quickly settled in to observe the five-a-side match, played with a rattling ball on a 40x20m boarded pitch. During gameplay, total silence is required, except for coaches giving instructions from outside the pitch to four blindfolded players and a fully sighted goalkeeper.
After a high-intensity full-time whistle, Corinthians secured a 6–0 victory, advancing to the next stage of the tournament. We spoke to coach Jaden Pienaar of Corinthians FC, who joined the team as a volunteer referee in 2024.
“The game was nice. We had a dominant performance and we hope to get to the finals and win the tournament,” he says.
Pienaar first heard about blind football from the founder, Mlungisi Jack Msibi, a friend of his mother. He was initially invited to referee a match before the team’s tour to Europe. Despite initial doubts, he agreed — and soon after found himself coaching.
Seated in the grandstands of the indoor pitch was Msibi, who is also the chairman of the Johannesburg Blind Football Association (JBFA), a league aimed at developing blind football in South Africa and closely linked with The Corinthians Africa NPO.
“The league consists of six teams from various townships, including Soshanguve and Ga-Rankuwa in Pretoria, as well as one in Soweto, Johannesburg. We also have players travelling from North West and Limpopo,” he says.
Msibi adds that the league currently does not have financial donors. The biggest contributor has been Corinthians Africa, which assists mainly with food, refreshments and transport.
However, the day’s event received sponsorship from Mogale Tailings Retreatment (MTR), a subsidiary of Pan African Resources (PAR), a large gold mining company based in Johannesburg.
Representatives from the division attended the tournament and even took part in a blindfolded exhibition match against children.
Before kick-off, we spoke to Thembinkosi Zulu, a stakeholder relations officer at MTR. Dressed in shorts and a pink Golf T-shirt branded Women in Mining, she explained their presence at the event.
“As part of our social licence to operate, we are obligated to implement Corporate Social Investment (CSI) projects. Today’s event was funded by us as part of our CSI programmes,” says Zulu.
She adds that the company was intrigued when they received the application for funding to host a blind football tournament.
The sponsors were ultimately thrashed 4–0 by the blindfolded children. In a post-match interview, KBNN spoke to Sonwabo Modimoeng, Social Performance Manager at MTR.
Modimoeng says PAR has supported sport before — including athletes competing in the Comrades Marathon — but saw blind football as something unique.
“We looked at the application as one of the best social cohesion programmes because it is something new, something that has never been done before and needs to be introduced. So we thought, let’s support this and see how it goes, because it fits with the core values of PAR,” he recalls.
Corinthians Blind Football Club went on to win the tournament, defeating their opponents 4–0 in the final.
At the close of the day, it was clear that blind football promotes inclusion and creates opportunities for people with disabilities to compete on equal footing with able-bodied athletes.
