Online Reporter
Veronica Gwaze
Zimpapers Sports Hub
THE recent volleyball friendlies between Zimbabwe and Zambia offered more than a scoreline.
They revealed a drama of endurance and craft, and no player embodied that story better than Media Mafuta.
At 42, Mafuta stunned the crowd with the kind of power and agility that usually belongs to athletes half her age.
Wearing the captain’s armband for the senior women’s national team, she controlled the court, mixing calm leadership with fierce execution.
Every set, block and spike carried the authority of experience and the hunger of someone still in love with the game.
To grasp what fuels her longevity, one has to trace her steps back to Kambuzuma.
As a young girl at Rugare Primary School, she was happiest chasing balls on the fields, often outplaying the boys.
One afternoon, coach Edmore Maramuro spotted the 10-year-old hammering a volleyball across a dusty patch and whisked her to the National Railways team.
Among older players, she learned fast, sharpening her skills and building the self-belief that still defines her.
By the time she entered Kambuzuma High School, Mafuta was already earning money from volleyball.
She sampled other sports too — netball, athletics and basketball, and excelled in all.
“Training with boys made me quickly mature in the game and in a short time I became unstoppable,” she recalls.
“I loved every sport I tried, but volleyball, netball and basketball became my life.”
Her club career reads like a tour of Zimbabwean volleyball — NRZ, Black Rhinos, Panthers, Jewels, Support Unit, ZRP Harare, Chapungu, Bulawayo Spartans and Harare City.
She even served as a soldier at Black Rhinos, a job she earned not through sport, but strong academic results.
Wherever she played, she drew clubs eager for her signature and teammates who fed off her energy.
Success followed.
Mafuta has worn the national colours in volleyball, both indoor and beach; netball; and basketball.
With Harare City, she won Zone Six Club Championship gold, and she was part of the 2018 Gems squad that booked Zimbabwe’s first-ever Netball World Cup ticket.
Her schedule is a puzzle of practices and matches.
She trains at least twice a week for each of her three codes while serving in the Zimbabwe National Army and raising a family.
“I’m now also a player-coach in all three sport codes and I have to make everything fit into the 24 hours of my day,” she says.
“I take all my games seriously because I love all the codes equally.”
That love shows in the way she carries herself — humble, driven and generous with young players.
“Hard work has been my key to success,” she says simply.
Mafuta’s career is a study in staying power.
She has thrived across decades and disciplines, ignoring the calendar and redefining what a veteran can be.
For anyone watching those friendlies against Zambia, the message was clear: Age might measure years, but it does not measure heart.
Tinaye Agere