Online Reporter
Zimpapers Sports Hub
FOR Masiye Suwali, the frustration has been building for years. Four decades in bodybuilding have given him a front-row seat to how the sport has grown, but also where it has stalled.
Now, he and a small group of like-minded athletes believe the time for complaints is over.
They have broken away.
Suwali, together with Freeman Pashapa, Lion Mawoyo, Godfrey Nyamukwira and others, has formed the Mufakose Bodybuilders and Weightlifting Association, a splinter body they say is aimed at fixing what they see as a flawed competitive system.
At the centre of their argument is the quest for fairness.
“It is a free for all. Anyone from anywhere can compete in any event. Things should not be done this way,” Suwali said.
After 42 years in the sport, the former Mr Mufakose speaks with the weight of experience, and his concern is not about established athletes competing, but how they are being placed.
“In 2025, we had William Sichone, an established Zambian competing at the Manicaland Open,” said Suwali.
“To me, this was unfair competition, which drove away upcoming bodybuilders from Manicaland.”
For Suwali, moments like that go beyond a single competition. They shape how young athletes see the sport.
Thrown onto the same stage as seasoned competitors, many of them walk in already outmatched, physically and mentally.
For some, that first experience becomes their last. That is the cycle the new association wants to break.
“The current approach must change if bodybuilding and weightlifting are to attract more talent and develop the next generation of athletes,” said Suwali. We are going to introduce reforms that are going to level the playing ground.”
Central to those reforms is structure.
Suwali believes competitions have drifted too far from clear divisions and categories, leaving athletes exposed in ways that do little to build confidence or progression.
He points to last year’s Harare Classic.
“At the 2025 Harare Classic, we had lightweights, those in the middleweight division and the heavyweights taking to the ramp at the same time,” said Suwali.
“The lightweights were clearly overwhelmed by the presence of the much bigger heavyweights. This was unfair competition.”
To the Mufakose group, that is not a minor flaw. It is a warning sign.
If young athletes continue to be pushed into mismatched contests, the sport is at risk of losing them before they even find their footing.
Yet not everything is broken.
Suwali acknowledges that sponsorship is improving and prize money is becoming more attractive.
“More sponsors are coming and the winning purses are attractive,” he said.
But better rewards, he argues, must be matched by a system that allows more athletes to compete on fair terms.
Otherwise, the same names will keep winning, and fewer new ones will come through.
This breakaway is built on that belief. That if the stage is balanced, more athletes will step onto it, and more importantly, stay.
