Bulawayo Chiefs act on sexual abuse of players

Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter 

IN a week that has seen women’s football make headlines for the wrong reasons, Bulawayo Chiefs have taken the initiative to educate their ladies’ team on issues to do with sexual abuse in sport.

The club held an educational workshop for the players at Zimbabwe International Exhibition Centre on Tuesday, an event which was attended by various sexual abuse educators including the police. 

The workshop comes at a time when women’s football in Bulawayo has been hit by harassment and sexual abuse allegations at various clubs in the city. 

A number of female footballers are reported to have become victims of sexual abuse, harassment and bullying from within the game especially by male coaches who dominate this segment of the game.

Bulawayo Chiefs communications officer Thulani Sibanda said: “The whole purpose was to act on an ongoing outcry or concerns on the safety and protection of the girl child in football. As a team that has the interests of the girl child at heart we decided to take the initiative to equip and empower our female members so as to arm them with correct information and ways on how to remain safe in the football world.”

Event co-ordinator Adelaide Gumbo, who is also a sport scientist and administrator hailed the initiative by Bulawayo Chiefs.

“Abuse of athletes is not only seen in football but various sports codes. The purpose of this workshop was to educate these girls on sexual abuse. The major problem we face with the abuse of women in sport is that they do not talk about it. 

“We are hoping to have more of such events at all sporting codes so that we educate our female athletes on sexual abuse. There is actually a framework on safe sport. It’s not really a policy at the moment, it’s part of a sports strategy. But it’s something that from 2014 during the AUSC games the Government said we need to have people who would look into the safety of athletes. 

“We talked about the safety of their environment and with them and their coaches. There is also a need to educate the coaches as well because they are also part of the crisis. Issues of sexual abuse must start at primary school level all the way up, that could help us curb this problem,” said Gumbo.