Karting's sweetheart

By Grace Chirumanzu

Tanya Muzinda gives her salute. Picture by Grace Chirumanzu

Tanya Muzinda’s march to the podium has left many boys weeping at Harare’s Donnybrook motor racing circuit.

Defeat is always a bitter pill to swallow in any sport, but the defeat by a girl in a male dominated motorsport boys and men have believed to be their territory, is unbearable to most boys.

But “girls can also do it”, Tanya appeared to have declared by her salute from her red kart during a training session last Thursday.

“I remember the first time I went to buy her a bike for motocross, the man who sold it to me did so gladly encouraging me to bring my daughter to the race so that his son who had always been last could have someone behind him during races. But guess who she beat when she first raced?” Her proud father, Tawanda Muzinda laughed as he explained, “I have heard little boys arguing that she is a boy each time she beats them and her short hair seems to confirm it for them.”

It was Muzinda’s friend, a big name in motorsport, Big Chitima who encouraged him to introduce his child to the sport about two years ago. Chitima however did not know his friend’s eldest child was a girl and she has lived more than to the expectations of many so far, making good friends with Chitima’s seven-year-old son, Big Junior “B.J”.

Tanya, who is yet to turn eight years this year, is a Grade Three student at Eaglesvale School. Her ability to ride a manual Honda 50cc bike in the Peewee category whose most competitors use auto bikes has amazed her father.

She is currently second on the riders’ standings out of 10 competitors. Being the only girl has made her the centre of attraction as she inspires other little girls of her age.

“She is a brave girl. The way she is organized and determined is just amazing. She gives me a reason to empower women. It is at this age they need to know that nothing can stop them just because they are girls. If she can beat the boys she knows nothing can stop her,” said Muzinda.

“It takes a lot of sacrifices in this sport. I want her to grow up to be a professional woman and be a champion. This will take the determination from us as her parents and the help from the corporate world through sponsorship.”

It is the expenses of the equipment and the resources required in this elite sport that has scared many away. The costs of the karts’ imported spare parts alone can be a nightmare.

“I bought her first bike for $2 000 and the whole kit for $900 not because I had so much money to spare but because I had made her a promise, which she kept reminding me every day. You do such sacrifices with eyes closed knowing that it will leave you into poverty, but it always come to pass and the investment one will have put in her kid will live forever,” explained Muzinda.

Apart from her own father, Tanya has the support of her coach Scott Kim and friend B.J. They have made Donnybrook their home for sport and leisure hanging out after practice.

This weekend the home for motorsport will be filled with activities as youngsters compete in motocross and kart races.

Tanya will wear her red costume and helmet for a date in the karts tomorrow with his father hoping to see her poking some more tears in the eyes of her young male opponents.

“She has only been practicing with the karts for three months now and she has shown great improvement. Her time at the beginning was 1minute eight seconds and she has come down to 55seconds,” he said. “It will be great if she keeps improving.”

Davies’ glittering history

1980 Olympic gold medalist.
Picture by Priviledge Musvanhiri

By Grace Chirumanzu

The year is 1980, the city is Moscow and it is the Olympic Games. Zimbabwe women have just made it into the finals against Austria to claim their first gold medal at the global sports gala.

“It was such an amazing feeling winning; there we were when first time hockey was ever played at the Olympics, Zimbabwe was in it and we won an Olympic gold medal,” said Chisipite School hockey coach, Trish Davies, who was the team’s left half.

They were invited to the Games just to make up numbers after some countries like West Germany, Netherlands, Australia and the United States boycotted the showcase prior to the Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.

The Zimbabweans, who had no international experience to talk about, surprised even themselves by snatching victories that included a sweet 2-0 against the hosts in the six-team round-robin competition.

The 15-member Zimbabwean women team that was confined to just playing competitions against apartheid South Africa saw their dream come true with the coming of Independence in 1980.

So, for a country that had never really played the game at any such high-profile event, being in the finals was a historic achievement in itself.

“When we left we didn’t even know how to play on astro-turf and there were teams that were a lot quicker than us but we still managed to win. Yes, there were countries that didn’t come but that’s their hard luck,” Davies laughs as she recalls.

“We beat Russia who were training for four years and we trained for three months; that was the biggest thing. We played Austria in the final match, if we had lost it we were going to win silver and a draw was going to give us bronze. By half time we were 3-0 up and we sort of knew this was ours. In the second half we were smiling and started playing defensive hockey; but we were not going to let them come near us.”

The team was welcomed to a joyful function by the country’s then Prime Minister, Robert Mugabe, and flowered with congratulatory messages from fellow Zimbabweans who saw their victory as an icing on the hot cake of independence.

The gold medal has been written in the country’s history books but for Davies and her teammates who include Anthea Stuarts, Sarah English, Christine Prinsloo, Patricia McKillop, the memories are still fresh in their minds.

The hockey team’s gold medal is one of Zimbabwe’s eight to date. The other seven that include one gold, two bronze and four silvers were won by the country’s swimming sensation Kirsty Coventry in Anthens, Greece and Beijing, China.

Besides coaching hockey, Davies is now into bowling. She was crowned the national Masters Tournament champion, last year.

Resurgence of the Blacks legend

By Grace Chirumanzu

Joseph Black Picture by Grace Chirumanzu

Six-year-old Joseph and Brooke Black (4) have just the right coach, the support and future plans any tennis star needs to relive the legacy of the Black brothers Zimbabwean fans reminisce of today.

The son and daughter of tennis legend, Wayne Black, have the guidance of their parents to take them through every step of the way to greatness.

Black who is married to her sister Cara’s former doubles partner, Kazakhstan-born Irina Selyutina believes it is the duty of parents to raise their kids into professional players.

"We are getting them to play tennis now. My dream for them is to make them as tennis professionals, it is a good lucrative life if one can do well,” said Black.

“We try to spend an hour a day with them. Most of our afternoons are evolving around tennis; watching tennis is not fun so we will be playing. We have a generation of my dad’s knowledge now and a generation of my knowledge to pass to our kids. With that accumulation of knowledge hopefully we can make them better than we were.”

Brooke Black strikes a backhand Picture by Grace Chirumanzu

Young Joseph’s love for the sport he was introduced to by his parents is unmistakable. The Hellenic Schoolboy kept calling for his father to serve a harder ball and not go easy on him during a session at his grandmother’s spacious home in Mandara.

"He loves playing with the big boys at his school,” said Wayne. Joseph said he wanted to beat Samuel, his young tennis idol at school. Brooke, who is still in nursery school, returned his father’s service with back-hand strikes of a young professional. “How high they can go we don’t know because the problem with this country is that we don’t have enough kids playing at the moment so they may not get much competition. So, it is going to be expensive for us to keep sending them outside to play. It is another expense added to tennis. But we are going to do our best and make sure that they hit 10 000 balls before they are 18,” said the former doubles partner to Kevin Ullyet.

Wayne grew up in a tennis family with his late father Don and mother Velia playing a vital role in his development together with older brother Byron and sister Cara.

With countryman Ullyett, Black won two men's doubles titles, the US Open in 2001 and Australian Open in 2005.  They finished in the top five for five seasons. Wayne also won two Grand Slam mixed doubles with sister Cara.

Their dance in the elite World Group as Team Zimbabwe saw the local fans enjoy some good tennis featuring world-class players such as Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.  

His wife, Irina, briefly played on the WTA tour after partnering Cara to the Wimbledon Junior doubles title in 1997.

“My dad did all the work with us. He put in three hours of work with us; if you times that with days and years and accumulate those hours, it will be ridiculous the hours he spent playing with us. That’s just how much time it takes to become a tennis player, these days it is an elite game that is specialised. Instead of coaching other kids to make money he put all that time into us,” he recalled.

“Unless as parents or unless there is a full time coaching system where kids can play all the time and have the facilities, it is very difficult to produce tennis players.

“Parents are not as tough on their kids anymore, they are letting their kids do what they want and figure it out for themselves when they are older but that’s too late because kids need to hit 10 000 balls before they are 18 (years old). So if one has not done the ground work or the basics by the time you are a teenager one will never make it as a tennis player. Parents have to do it. The tennis Association can set up an Academy but it takes a lot of money and they will have to choose on five or ten kids and focus on them. But who is to say they are the right kids to choose and parents will come asking why their kids are not being picked.”

Black who admits “feeling nostalgia when watching Wimbledon” admits there is young talent in Zimbabwe that needs some serious nurturing.

“We have some nice juniors and some nice young professionals coming up and hopefully they can find that next level. There are a lot of good players but it is the mental jump to go to the next level, so if they can handle it mentally and if they want it bad enough they will definitely make it,” he said.

“I hope to groom my two little ones because obviously I will spend more time with them than any other kids. I am coaching six kids at the moment and also at a school but obviously I only see them one or two hours a week so it is difficult to have a very big impact on their careers.

“I do hope Tadiwa Chinyama makes it, I see him three times a week and he plays very good tennis. He is showing very good promise and he is great hope for the future.”

Wayne and wife Irina serve balls for their kids Joseph and Brooke. Picture by Grace Chirumanzu.

Women CAN't have it all

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-can-8217-t-have-it-all/9020/

Muchuchuti dreams of Moscow 2013

BY GRACE CHIRUMANZU
Dressed attractively in a red sleeveless top and tight short, she walked confidently like a model and a cool breeze blew her long black hair just like in the movies. With her confidence and an ideal height of 1.85m anyone can be forgiven for thinking she is the current Miss Zimbabwe beauty queen.
 Her dream is not anywhere close to that ramp for a glittery crown. Charity Muchuchuti dreams of playing at the 2013 International Rugby Board women’s World Cup in Moscow. The national sevens teams both men and women are set to compete in the 2013 IRB Sevens Rugby World Cup Africa qualifiers to be held in Morocco from 27 to 29 September.


Charity Muchuchuti with ball

“Going to the World Cup will be a great thing for me and the team,” said Muchuchuti. “People believe women can’t do anything, they cannot imagine a women’s team playing good rugby. Sometimes it sees challenges in getting sponsorship because people think we are not serious. But if they can give us a chance and offer their support we will prove to them that we can do it.”
She has fallen in love with the sport since 2008 when the national women’s rugby team coach, Abigail Govere, recruited her from basketball.
“I managed to get the basics of passing the ball and the rugby rules in a week. I did not struggle that much because being a sports person one always learns to adjust. What matters is the physical fitness,” she said.
Muchuchuti who also plays for Varsity Leopards during the basketball season has made a name for herself in the rugby field together with fellow basketballers. These include former national basketball women’s team captain, Abigail Gondo, Varsity Leopards captain Lucia Marisamhuka and Patience Chinhoyi.
In basketball a player has the freedom to pass the ball to a player in front but it is a different story in rugby. A player is only allowed to pass the ball to the back. One is only allowed two steps before shooting the ball in basketball whereas in rugby one can run all the way for a try.
How did Muchuchuti and her teammates manage making the changeover from bouncing the ball in a sport where contact will get a player penalised for a foul to fitting in an aggressive contact sport?
“The biggest challenge I then had was telling my mind that now I am playing rugby, no more passing in front. I found myself passing the ball in front at most times and I would sometimes do two steps and freeze before realising Oh! I can sprint all the way, it’s not basketball,” she laughs.
“I joined rugby not knowing that sometimes you can get hit and have a concussion for a week or so. On my first tour in Zambia I got hit in the first two minutes of the game and I passed out. I only remembered being carried to the ambulance and never completing that game. Ever since then I have learnt to be on the offensive rather than defensive.”
The Old Hararians and Pangolins prop no longer hesitates to make a tackle. In fact, she admits she has found satisfaction in making tackles.
“My mother has only watched me play once; she says she does not like watching me hurt other people’s kids. I have found great joy in making tackles –hitting before I am hit- it makes me feel like I am in control,” she said.
“One has to be strong, confident, train hard and trust the next person she is going to play with to be a good rugby player. With confidence one can do wonders in a rugby field, fear does not take anyone anywhere. If one is intimidated by my height before playing the game then she will play the whole game avoiding contact with me, which should not be the idea.”

The Queen of motor rally

Laureen Marufu with the other drivers.

BY GRACE CHIRUMANZU
Stepping into the reception one is welcomed by soothing soft music, with the black leather couches calling for company. Through to the elegant garden, Mother Nature has a special relationship with sculptures to give a beautiful relaxing mood at Amara’s Health Spa in Harare’s upmarket Borrowdale.
Several rooms are bracing for activities such as various full body massages, steaming baths, body scrubs, manicures, facial treatments among others. But in a separate office furnished with a stylish fish pond table sits the Spa’s lady boss, dressed in a black top that reveals the black rose tattooed on her left arm, a fitting grey skirt with her long black hair combed one side.
Is she the current Miss Tourism Zimbabwe? No, though she may fit perfectly in that shoe. It is Zimbabwe’s top female motor rally driver –Laureen Marufu.
“I am a go-getter,” she says.
Marufu (35) began her career in motorsport three years ago. She impressed many by finishing ninth in her debut Toyota Challenge Rally in 2010. She moved three places up the following year to finish sixth. But the opening event of the African Challenge Rally was an unfortunate stage for her this year. She crashed out of the competition after her Toyota Runx hit a tree at Donnybrook the first day of the three-day show.
“It was really nice,” Marufu gives a naughty giggle as she describes her first crash in Norton.
“The car kept rolling and all I could remember in my head was stop I need to go! Stop I need to go!” It was not even like oh my God I am going to die; I needed to keep on moving. When the car  stopped I was unconscious and started hearing my navigator’s voice “Laureen Laureen” so I became conscious and replied “Yes yes lets go!” and he said we are upside down you know.
“I had just bought my Toyota Runx. It is heavy from the front and it is not very good when it comes to deeps, it lands on the nose because the back is light. I was going very fast and I flipped from one side on a ditch and my car rolled seven times into the bush, a kilometre off the road. It is actually funny, I was never scared, and I still wanted to go.”
The mother to Amara (5) and Ridwaan (4) has in recent years shocked most women whose typical questions are “do you have kids?” and “are you mad?” Marufu has always been an adrenaline junkie.
Her love for speed started when she was a little girl “driving with my Dad and I always looked at him driving and say I want to be the one on that sit.”
Marufu revealed that the fastest speed she has drove was 220km/hr where she got to Bulawayo from Harare in two and a half hours “rushing to do salaries there and I had to rush back to see my father in hospital where I saw his last breath.”
“I don’t see myself being someone else’s passenger at that speed. I feel safe when I am the one in control because as a rally driver in my realm of thinking I know what is safe and what is not. So if it is someone driving they haven’t done defensive driving and they don’t know what tricks to do to avoid certain things,” she said. 
Unfortunately the man who taught her to drive at the age of 14, her father, passed on before he watched his mentee making it into professional racing. Even though she regarded herself as a fast driver, her debut race at Donnybrook made her sweat.
“I was going so fast and I was sweating and when I got there (finishing point) I was last; I was like oh my God I thought that was fast,” she laughed.
“I had a navigator to help me but as a new driver I had no idea what this guy was talking about. I was like please keep quiet you are disturbing; I am trying to see where I am going. When I started racing it was also my navigator Clint (Ashdown)’s first time, so he had no idea what he was reading and I had no idea what he was saying and I was thinking “look I’m trying to get where I am going and you are disturbing me.
“The difference between the normal and rally driving is so so huge. It’s like I learnt how to drive all over again. With rally driving one will be on dust and going on the same speed as on tar, there is more control that is needed, there is more focus that is needed.”
Motorsport is one of the most expensive sports in the world. The costs of car repairs have scared many away from the sport. Marufu dreams for a “brilliant sponsor who will see the potential in me that being the first black woman and the only woman I can go very far.
“I want to be an ambassador for abused women; most women when they are abused they start to think they are less of a person, they feel demoralised, and they don’t have hope that they can still be people. I just want to be an ambassador to see women growing to that position where they are in control of their dreams as well.”
Marufu grew up with an abusive step mother and her childhood life made her “mature at a very young age.” Her first job was with Edgars stores at the age of 14 where she worked during school holidays. She set her goals straight on “what I wanted and what I did not want” and that has taught her to be tough and to expect no mercy in the male dominated sport.
“Its pointless being in a sport where one wants people to recognise her as a woman who is putting an effort; one has to do the sport simply as a sport, there is need to win despite being a woman. Right now I am the only female driver competing with men and if I am going to be a petty little girl I am not going to get anywhere. I don’t want any pity and I don’t want to be treated any different from everyone else,” she said.
African champion and one of Zimbabwe’s most senior drivers, Jamie Whyte, described Marufu as a “good driver who will go far in this sport.”

Laureen Marufu in the African Rally Championship

I deserve respect, Bev

Pole dancer, Beverly Sibanda

BY GRACE CHIRUMANZU

“Do not try this at home” should be a sign bar managers stick around when she takes to the stage.

It is certainly something not just any flexible woman can do, an act that can cause severe damage to the spinal code if one attempts to emulate without the inborn talent. The way popular dancer Beverly Sibanda wiggles her body to rhumba music, pole dances and moves to sungura music has left Harare talking.

“People love what I do; I have had so many girls asking me to teach them to dance.”

Sibanda who lives with her sister in Borrowdale continued, “My sisters know the kind of person I was from school as someone who is so free-spirited and they have accepted what I want to do and supported me. My boyfriend understands me and respects what I do, he knows it is just a job and he likes it. He is always giving me advice and our relationship is good.”

The 21-year-old dancer who is popularly known as Bev started dancing at school as a cheerleader but realised she wanted to venture into the entertainment industry as a dancer in 2008.

Besides being young and beautiful, her flexibility and sexy moves on the stage has left tongues wagging. It has often sent the wrong messages to men and women who have watched her dance and those who have heard of her.

Some men take her for a sex worker, while other women believe she is out there to snatch their husbands. But Bev demands respect.

“When I am on stage some people tend to touch me or grab my breast, which I hate. I don’t like being disturbed. People need to understand that this is just a job, I do what I do to entertain and not seduce men; I don’t want their men. So, they need not think that I am looking for sex,” she said.

“I don’t drink alcohol and I am not a sex worker. I hate being touched when I am dancing. It just shows how men disrespect me because I am a woman; they know I cannot fight them. If it is a man doing what I do they will have respect for them because they know they will spark a fight. So, people should know their boundaries when they have been moved by my dances.”

Prison Arts Programme sets spirits free

Prisoner Sibuthweyinkosi Mlotshwa showcases her talent at HIFA 2012

BY GRACE CHIRUMANZU

It is through dance that Magarette Makotose realised how “people appreciate her as a human being with a talent of entertaining” and not judge her with the sins of her past.

Dancing to various songs that included the late Sungura King Tongai Moyo’s Zakeo and Busi Ncube’s True Love together with other members of the Khami School of Arts at last week’s Harare International Festival of the Arts brought out the best in her.

Her joy in doing what she loves best was never doubted in her body language. Her school mate, 26-year-old Sibuthweyinkosi Mlotshwa, said she used to look down upon herself and “never knew I had this talent of dancing.”

She was moved with how the crowd showed great appreciation of their performance. It was their smiles and good interaction with the public that left many wondering the unlikely prisoners they are.

The two women are inmates at Khami Prison in Bulawayo where Mlotshwa is serving her six months term for fraud while Makotose has three more years to her total of ten for a murder case back in 2005.

Makotose and Mlotshwa who are both mothers to young boys are part of the Zimbabwe Prison Services (ZPS) arts programme that has seen inmates performing at the annual festival.

They told The Zimbabwean “performing in front of a crowd has reminded us that we are still human beings people from outside (the prison) can cheer for the good things that we can do and not jeer for the bad things we have done.”

Arts and Culture Officer in the ZPS, James Joni, who was the brains behind the programme back in 2001, attribute the rise of the arts in the prison to the Commissioner of Prisons, Paradzai Zimondi.

“There is a bright future in the Zimbabwe Prison and this will be seen by the talent displayed by inmates. Commissioner Zimondi needs to be applauded for giving me the green light to kick-start the project,”he said.

Joni who has been in ZPS for the past 29 years said he has come to understand inmates and appreciate their talents. They started performing at HIFA last year after showcasing at provincial festivals in recent years.

But have they never attempted to escape each time they are out for a show outside the prison?

“These are people we have worked with for a long time; we have been with them enough to know that they are disciplined, determined and dedicated in what I call the three Ds of an artist. It is a way of helping them realise their talents and prepare them for a life back in the community. But it is important for people to welcome them and give them a second chance in life.”

Mighty Warriors - can it be any tougher?

BY GRACE CHIRUMANZU
The Young Mighty Warriors head off next to Nigeria’s Ogun State riding the crest of a wave.
The national Under-20 women’s soccer side recently made light work of Mozambique, thumping their neighbour 7-0 in the first round of the FIFA World Cup qualifier. But Nigeria are not Mozambique, or are they?
This is what the Langton Giwa-coached side will help us find out when the two sides face-off in the second round of the same tournament on Saturday, 31 March. Having participated in all five World Cups since 2002, the Super Falconets are not an ordinary opposition.
They were the first African nation to reach the finals of the prestigious event – losing 0-2 to hosts, Germany, two years ago. Giwa’s charges will be under-dogs when they march onto the turf at the weekend. But that does not mean that they cannot twist the scales.
The West Africans are taking this game seriously, having set up a two week training camp in Abuja that continues in Abeokuta this week, under the guidance of newly-appointed coach, Kadiri Ikhana. History says he led Enyimba Football Club to their maiden CAF Champions League victory in 2003.
The Zimbabweans have no international experience to brag about – both on the bench and within the lines, but the talent displayed by Rufaro Machingura, Emmaculate Msipa and Rutendo Makore has raised hopes.
“It will be a tough match,” said assistant coach, Sithethelelwe Sibanda. “Nigeria are experienced and they know what they want, but we have also prepared well and the girls know how tough this is going to be. I believe they are also mentally prepared.”
While the Zimbabweans were celebrating their more than half a dozen goals over Mozambique, Nigeria were enjoying the comfort of easing through, after Sierra Leone pulled out for financial challenges.
Germany, Italy, Norway and Switzerland (UEFA); Japan (host), North Korea, China and
Korea Republic (AFC); and Argentina and Brazil (CONMEBOL) have already qualified for the global showcase.
The Young Mighty Warriors are seeking to occupy the two slots for African teams, as eight compete in the second round (between 30 March and 15 April). The third round is set for May 4-20.

The women besides the driver

BY GRACE CHIRUMANZU

Jess Watson cruised to the ramp of the 2012 Toyota Challenge Rally together with his co-driver, wife Sasha in a first couple victory in 32-years.

Sasha one of the women participants in this year’s showcase was pleased to have been the woman besides the victorious man, Jess, to champion the three-day competition in a time of 2 hours 40 minutes 17 seconds.

“Initially that (being in motorsport) was not my choice, it was my husband’s and I decided to follow in his footsteps to support him. I have rallied with him twice so far and each time I have enjoyed it,”said Sasha.

“The race was tight at the beginning and I am happy that we managed to win, it was just unfortunate to have other good drivers pulling out after the challenges they faced.”

Bronwyn Ebrahim, wife to Ronald Parsell, was also one of the female co-drivers navigating their partners in the Challenge Rally, last weekend.

Women are generally known to have a gentle tough to almost everything they do, with most of them being critical of male drivers speeding on the road. But Sasha and Bronwyn declared they loved speed.

“I am pretty much of a adrenaline junkie by nature, I have always been. So I have always felt very safe with him (Jess).” said Sasha Watson.

Bronwyn added, “I have always loved speed, during my childhood I was the fastest on my bike and so now I want to be the fastest in the cars. I remember when I did my first motor rally experience in 2006 it was out of this world and I kept telling the driver “faster!!”

“I love our partnership (with Parsell) because he hardly ever doubts me because if the turn is right round the corner you can go maximum speed and tell him it’s about time to turn so he trusts my call, which is a good thing.”

Parsell and his 39-year-old wife, Bronwyn, who is a mother of seven, finished the competition on position six.

Mguni fights stigma to rise to the top

BY GRACE CHIRUMANZU
A bad asthma attack during her childhood each time
she tried to run, like the other kids of her age, could have took charge of her life and discouraged her to be the sportsperson she wished to be growing up in
Harare’s high-density suburb of Highfield.
But neither did asthma nor eczema pulled her down
from being the person she wanted to be in life, a self motivated chief executive of the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee (ZOC). Anna Mguni ignored the bad
aspect of her health to focus more on her strengths and this has seen her emerge as the boss of the country’s Olympic Games governing board.
“I was a very sickly child suffering from asthma and
eczema to the extent that doctors said I could not do any normal activities that requires exertion. Watching other kids knowing that if ever I start running my parents will say don’t run, don’t do this, you will cough; was just bad because I really wanted to be like other kids. I spent days in hospital and
even had a near death experience, it was just bad,” she recalls.
The negative comments about her seemingly peeling skin from eczema rather encouraged her to stand for who she was inside. She did not allow people to take away the courage in her.
“I also suffered from eczema and back then I was stigmatised; people would look at me strangely and ask what was wrong with my skin and what is going on? I grew up to be so defensive on whether why I wassick or why my skin had broken out. It really toughened me into realising that
there is a border line, that (sickness) is not really important –there are more important things to life than that,” she said.
Mguni, a single mother of two girls, who was appointed as the ZOC CEO following Stanley Mutoya’s resignation last November may have faced a jittery start to her new career faced with preparations for the high profile London 2012 Olympic Games set for July, but that has not been the case.
The former national basketball team and Real Returners star acknowledges the help of her two predecessors, Mutoya and Robert Mutsauki, who have assisted with a smooth flow of information and advice. She insisted that for women to be successful and take up decision-making positions in Zimbabwe, they need not challenge men but realise that it is their support
they need.
“We are not really challenging them (men) but we need their support for more women to end take up these decision-making posts,” said Mguni.
Being a woman at the helm of one of the country’s sports board, it is tempting for some people to quickly judge her as a potential failure after the Asiagate scandal unearthed by the media proved to have been masterminded by an allegedly corrupt fellow woman, Henrietta Rushwaya.
Mguni refuses to be painted with the same dirty brush.
“I see it as a challenge, we need to assist our men get over this cultural perspective because if it was a man they would not paint every man with the same brush so why do one have to do that because it is a woman?” she questioned.
“It is a difficult system to fight but we need to work through it by education and also by just being clean in our dealings. It is up to us the women in whatever profession we are in we need to be
professional. Otherwise we lose our credibility a lot faster than they (men) do.”
She has a traceable record as a sports administrator and her passion for the field can never be questioned. She captained her basketball and hockey team at High School and the team sport has taught her to work with others and learn from their ideas.
From a tricky childhood to teaching Geography at Vulindlela Secondary school in rural Matabeleland where there was no electricity, shortage of textbooks and having to extract all notes for students, Mguni realised how she was a source of information for her students.
She is proud to have been a teacher saying the experience taught her how to deal with people and groomed her into an innovative strong woman.
For the highs and lows that characterised her life, Mguni has so many lessons to learn from it. The most important lesson being that one “may be bad in some aspect of your life but it is certainly not everything about you that is bad. So, why not focus on the good.”
Her vision goes beyond the 2012 games in London as she hopes to “go further in sports administration and follow in the footsteps of Robert Mutsauki who is now with ANOCA and Tomy Sithole who is now with the IOC.”

Source: The Zimbabwean newspaper.