Akhona Zennith Makalima (born 27 March 1988) is an international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

from South Africa who is a listed international referee for

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

since 2014. She officiates for FIFA,

COSAFA Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (; ), officially abbreviated as COSAFA, is an association of the football playing nations in Southern Africa. It is affiliated to CAF. COSAFA organise several tournaments in the Southern African ...

, the

Premier Soccer League The Premier Soccer League (PSL) is the administrative body for professional soccer leagues and cups in South Africa. It is based in Johannesburg, and was founded in 1996 following an agreement between the National Soccer League and the remnant ...

, and the

South African Football Association The South African Football Association (colloquially known as SAFA) is the national administrative governing body that controls the sport of football in the Republic of South Africa (RSA) and is a member of the Confederation of African Footbal ...

(SAFA). She was the first female referee to officiate in the

. She holds a national diploma in human resource management from King Hintsa FET College and currently works administrator for the Department of Sport. On 9 January 2023, FIFA appointed her to the officiating pool for the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's association football, football championship contested by List of women's national association football teams, women's nat ...

in Australia. She officiated the 2023 AFCON as a VAR referee. She officiated as the VAR referee at the 2024 CAF Super Cup.

References

Living people Women association football referees 1988 births 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup referees South African soccer referees {{Sports-official-bio-stub