Amakhosi’s iron lady who built the brand

Jessica Motaung (right) has been involved in football for a long time, helping build the Kaizer Chiefs brand, particularly on the marketing side of things.

One of the daughters of the Amakhosi chairman and founder Kaizer Motaung, there was no way that Jessica wouldn’t work in the beautiful game.

With that said, the Chiefs chairman’s daughter is definitely one of the women in football who are leading the way and showing that women are as capable as men when it comes to growing the game and making it a success.

Just recently, Motaung was part of the Confederation of Football’s (Caf) Women’s Football Strategy Taskforce Workshop in a two-day meeting in Cairo, Egypt, where she met with many other women in football across the continent to share ideas regarding developing and growing the women’s game.

She explains that the experience was fulfilling for her and it was lovely sharing ideas with others.

“It was very exciting and a great opportunity. I was invited by Caf to be part of the first task force for women’s football to work out a strategy for women’s football in Africa. There were a lot of women from different areas and disciples. It was lovely to engage with them and share ideas,” said Motaung.

“There are lots of expectations, the first request was to come with an open mind, share our expertise and understanding in different areas that we work, but also to come with different views on how we can build and grow women’s football and do it in a way that it is going to enhance women’s football, not in a way whereby it’s going to compete with male football, but just to be complimentary.”

“I received a call to engage and share my information – I was quite humbled to be selected to come in and engage with them.”

Talking about the possibility of having a Chiefs female team in the future, Motaung added that there are expectations that the Glamour Boys will have a female team, but its something that has to be looked through thoroughly especially with the way women’s football is growing.

“My passion for football is across the board, from youth football, to other areas and women’s football is important. I think the success of the World Cup has changed the perspective in terms of how everybody is seeing the women’s game. There wasn’t an expectation that women could perform so well on the field. We are watching local games and other games and we see that women are performing beautifully.”