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Ellina Mhlanga
Senior Sports Reporter
NATIONAL Anti-Doping Coordinating Committee chair Anna Mguni has described the visit to Zimbabwe by World Anti-Doping Agency president, Witold Banka, as a huge endorsement of the work being done locally to ensure athletes practise clean sport. Banka, who concluded his visit on Monday, was in the company of Rafal Piechota, a director in the office of the WADA president, and director of the Africa office Rodney Swigelaar.
Banka met various stakeholders including the Ministry of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture, Sports and Recreation Commission, Zimbabwe Olympic Committee, National Anti-Doping Coordinating Committee, athletes, and chairman of the Africa Zone VI Regional Anti-Doping Organisation Nicholas Munyonga.
“This has been a very important visit for Zimbabwe. It’s a huge endorsement by WADA in the confidence and appreciation of what the anti-doping movement is doing in Zimbabwe as part of the region, Regional Anti-Doping Organisation Zone VI,’’ Mguni said.
“So, just even in the discussions that we held with the WADA president, he was very cognisant of all the activities we are doing from an education, testing, developing an integrity bill and looking towards putting in stronger measures which is investigations such as consistent compliance and culminating in having a national anti-doping organisation in the long-run.
“He also really appreciated the collaboration that is very distinct and clear between the sports movement and the government and how the two entities are working very well.
“This endorsement, this visit including the visit from the director of the Africa WADA office Rodney Swigelaar has been very important to us and we are honoured to have them here.
“And we are even more driven to make sure that we keep all our systems in place, all the compliance. But more, above everything else, is just making sure that we are always putting athletes at the centre of everything that we are doing,” said Mguni.
The Ministry of Sport is working on the Sport Integrity Bill that will deal with several issues related to the sector, including doping.
Mguni noted that the evolving world of anti-doping, it’s always a continuous process but is confident of the steps being taken by the various stakeholders.
“With the ever-evolving world of anti-doping, there is never a stage where you can say you have done enough.
“We have taken important and necessary steps but there are even bigger steps to be taken. Education has been one of our strongest areas and this doesn’t date back to just two years. We are talking about 10 years ago when we started working a lot on education. “Testing has always been a bit of a challenge purely because of the budgets that are involved in ensuring that the tests are then exported for analysis.
“But we have the support of international federations, the regional organ, and WADA itself in making sure we undertake tests. And of course, importantly the grant we get from the government to do out-of-competition testing.
“So, there is a lot that still needs to be done. But we are taking the right steps, we are making sure that we have the skills and capacities, in turn, to make sure that clean sport is driven internally within our scenario,” said Mguni.
Chairman of the Africa Zone VI Regional Anti-Doping Organisation (RADO), Munyonga, said Banka’s visit presented him with a platform to directly give feedback to the WADA president on the activities both for Zimbabwe and the Region.
Munyonga said the establishment of Regional Anti-Doping Organisations was the brainchild of WADA to try and group countries into various groupings so that they can pull resources together and then be able to implement anti-doping programmes.
And the international agency has been supportive of the regional organisation, which has made it possible to undertake various activities in promoting clean sports.
“From the time of the inception of the Regional Anti-Doping Organisation in 2006, WADA has been supporting RADO through the WADA staff grant.
“You find then that the activities of the office of RADO in Botswana have been supported by WADA.
“And then there has been quite a lot of coordination for the member countries as far as testing is concerned, as far as education is concerned.
“There has been that direct benefit to member countries through the support that we have received from WADA.
“Secondly, WADA has also been providing what is called the testing grant that allows member countries to do a few out-of-competition tests.
“And this has assisted member countries including Zimbabwe to be doing several out-of-competition testing . . . So we had an opportunity to give the feedback directly to the WADA president and that can assist in terms of further support, technical, and so forth,” said Munyonga.
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