Botswana started the Cosafa Women’s Championship campaign with a 7-0 whitewash of South Sudan at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Wednesday.

Township Rollers FC striker Refilwe Tholakele scored a hat-trick with the other goals coming from Lesego Radiakanyo, Makgabo Thanda, Balothanyi Johannes and Masego Montsho.

The win saw Botswana lead Group B with three points pending the outcome of a meeting between guests Tanzania and Zimbabwe at the same venue on Wednesday afternoon.

The tournament started with Group A action that saw Mozambique and Angola sharing the spoils in a 2-2 draw on Tuesday morning.

Thereafter, South Africa’s Banyana Banyana started their title defence with a home 2-1 win over Malawi’s Scorchers on Tuesday afternoon.

Banyana Banyana lead Group A on three points followed on one point each by Angola and Mozambique whereas Malawi are bottom.

Group C action only resumes on Thursday when Namibia line up against Uganda, other guests, with Zambia taking on Eswatini.

Winners of each group plus the overall second best team across all the three groups will advance to the semifinals.

Matches at the tournament, which will run from September 28 to October 9 2021, are taking place behind closed doors.

Selected fixtures:

September 29 2021

Botswana v South Sudan @12:00noon

Tanzania v Zimbabwe @3:30pm

October 1 2021

Malawi v Mozambique @12:00 noon

South Africa v Angola @ 3:30pm