In The Room with Malebo Mogomotsi: The Woman Behind the Boardroom, the Football and the Motherhood
By Neontle Mogomotsi
In sport, especially football, strength is often associated with authority, composure, and control. It is a world that moves quickly, demands toughness, and rarely slows down long enough to ask the people behind the scenes how they are truly doing.
For Malebo Mogomotsi, navigating that world has meant learning how to exist in two spaces at once, as a respected Football Administrator in male-dominated environments, and as a mother raising a teenage daughter while quietly carrying the emotional weight that comes with both roles.
Born and raised in Phokeng, Malebo describes herself not first by her career, but by the people and spaces that shaped her.
“I’m a girl from Phokeng,” she says. “A daughter, a sister, a friend, and a mother.”
It is a grounding introduction for a woman whose professional journey reflects years of discipline and ambition. A BA Communications graduate and FIFA Accredited Sports Management graduate, Malebo has built a career in football administration while balancing family life, womanhood, and personal growth.
But behind the polished professionalism is someone deeply aware of the emotional labour women often carry privately.
“As the older sister, there’s always pressure,” she says. “You feel as if, if you don’t hold it together, everything else will fall apart.”
That pressure followed her into adulthood, into workspaces where women are still expected to prove themselves, especially in football, constantly.
“If you are a woman in sports, softness can get you dismissed,” she says honestly. “So, I learned selective softness. You have to be tough and human, not tough instead of human.”
It is a line that perfectly captures the balancing act many career-driven women know intimately, the need to lead firmly while still protecting the softer parts of themselves.
For Malebo, that softness lives most naturally in motherhood.
At the centre of her world is her teenage daughter, a young woman now approaching adulthood and preparing for the next chapter of her life. It is a transition Malebo speaks about with equal parts pride and heartbreak.
“Motherhood is moving very fast,” she says. “Before I know it, she’ll be leaving for varsity, and I honestly don’t think I’m ready.”
The conversation around motherhood often celebrates milestones, first steps, first words, first days at school, but Malebo says few people prepare mothers for the “lasts.”
“The last time they sit on your lap. The last school drop-off. The last cheek kiss before they become too grown,” she reflects. “Nobody really talks about those moments.”
There is grief in watching your child become independent, she explains, but also gratitude. “Grief doesn’t mean failure. It means I love the role of motherhood.”
As a working mother in a demanding industry, guilt is something she knows intimately. There were school events missed because of work commitments, nights she arrived home after her daughter was already asleep, and moments where she questioned whether she was giving enough.
“I used to think she’d feel like I chose work over her,” she admits. “But I had to remind myself that my daughter doesn’t need a perfect mom, she needs a real one.”
It is this honesty that makes Malebo’s reflections feel deeply human. There is no performance in the way she speaks about motherhood. No attempt to package it as graceful or effortless.
Instead, she speaks about motherhood as something evolving, something messy, emotional, and deeply transformative.
“Motherhood made me kinder to myself,” she says. “It also healed the relationship between myself and my own mother.”
Now raising a teenager, she has had to learn a completely different kind of parenting, one rooted less in control and more in listening.
“When children are younger, you teach and explain everything,” she says. “Now it’s more about listening, even when it’s one-word answers with attitude.”
She laughs as she describes the current state of their relationship.
“We’re somewhere between mother and best friends,” she says. “We argue, we call each other out, and then send each other cute messages after.”
But beneath the humour is a deeper truth: her daughter is not only watching her as a mother, but as a woman.
“She notices everything,” Malebo says. “When I’m stressed. When I set boundaries. When I’m exhausted but still show up.”
And perhaps that awareness has changed Malebo, too.
“Knowing she’s watching me makes me want to become a woman I’d be proud for her to become,” she says.
It is a powerful reflection from someone who admits that for years, she believed strength meant carrying everything quietly.
“Being a good mom and career-driven woman felt like never letting people see the weight,” she says. “But now I’ve learned that carrying life privately doesn’t mean hiding it. It means choosing who gets to see it.”
These days, she leans more intentionally into peace, boundaries, and letting go.
“This season has taught me to let go,’ she says softly. ‘And letting go is uncomfortable, but it has brought me peace and drawn me closer to God.”
When asked what she would name this current season of her life, her answer comes almost instantly: Reach It by Zonke.
“I’m not stuck,” she says. “Even if it’s messy, there’s direction. I’m stretching out for something.”
And maybe that perfectly captures the woman she is becoming, someone still reaching, still growing, still choosing herself while carrying the many roles life has placed in her hands.”
That shift, from survival to softness, from performance to honesty, seems to define the season of life she currently finds herself in.
When asked what keeps her grounded through the chaos of football, motherhood, and life, her answer comes easily. “Family,” she says. “My daughter always brings me back to what actually matters.”
For all the titles, achievements, and responsibilities she carries, it becomes clear during this conversation that Malebo’s greatest pride is not found in football stadiums or boardrooms. It is found in the ordinary moments, loud music during car rides, coffee dates with her daughter, conversations at home, and the quiet comfort of knowing she is loved beyond what she achieves.
Because beyond the football administration, the leadership, and the pressure to always “have it together,” Malebo Mogomotsi is simply a woman learning, growing, carrying, and becoming in real time. And maybe that honesty is her greatest strength of all.
Connect with Malebo Mogomotsi:
Facebook: Malebo Mogomotsi
LinkedIn: Malebo Mogomotsi
Instagram: @malebolecious
_Published by Neontle Mogomotsi
Such a beautiful piece❤️