Royal AM boss Shauwn ‘Ma’ Mkhize has opened up on her ordeal of being a woman running a professional club in a male-dominated industry.
Mkhize, speaking in the Sport Summit in Durban recently, said she was not interested in running a football club after her ex-husband Sbu Mpisane took Royal Eagles from her in the 2019/20 season via the court – the club they co-owned together in the Motsepe Foundation Championship.
But she admitted after her son, Andile Mpisane resigned from Royal Eagles, she couldn’t bear the pain he was going through because he loves football.
It is why she went and bought the status of Bloemfontein Celtic at the beginning of 2021/22 season and named the club Royal AM, which in full is Royal Andile Mpisane.
MaMkhize bought Celtic’s status after she boycotted the play-offs in the 2020/21 season, when her club initially won the Motsepe Foundation Championship promotion, but they were bumped from the top via the boardroom after Polokwane City were found guilty to have failed to include five U23 players when they played against Sekhukhune United in January 2021.
In turn, Sekhukhune gained the three points and won the promotion, bumping Royal AM to play-offs, but she refused to play in them.
“I came in football, I was a rebel. I was the first woman to stop the play-offs, something that was never seen before,” said Mkhize.
“I was fighting for my rights and that is what I have done. When I was fighting that fight, I was all over the media, with talks saying ‘this one doesn’t know what she is doing, she’s going to be expelled from soccer’.
“Guys, I’m still standing and those were things that motivated me. I said ‘I’m going there, I’m going to fight, prove them wrong’. It pushed me to become a better version of myself.
“I don’t know, but when men look at us they want us to do the wrong things or take our panties down and get to where they want to be, but that’s not who we are.”
Before the 2022/23 season started, she went back to Max Tshabalala to buy Celtic’s ladies status to form the Royal AM Ladies team, becoming only the third DStv Premiership club to do so at the time – and she has high targets for her team.
“I’m going to fight, fight until I win the league,” she added.
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“Who said it is Mamelodi Sundowns only that is going to win the league? No matter how long it takes me, I will only leave football once I have won the league, once I have made sure that the girls are going to play in the CAF Champions League, once I made sure that there is equality in gender.
“If you look at the salary pack that the boys are getting, the women must have the same salary pack. We want to see them looking good, we want to see them making sure that they are able to look after their families, and shine.”
She also said the performance of both ladies in the Hollywoodbets Super League and men in the DStv Premiership “were not what I wanted but next year I feel sorry for everyone because we are coming hard”.
