Chronicle EditorSikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
MATABELELAND South Basketball Association (MSBA) has finally broken its silence following unfounded allegations that it was not in good standing with the Basketball Union of Zimbabwe (Buz) and should have been barred from participating in the elective annual general meeting held last month.
MSBA chairman Brighton Ncube — dismissed allegations by its Harare counterparts and losing candidate for the secretary-general’s post Sunny Mbofana that it was not in good and regular standing.
Mbofana and the Harare Basketball Association have since approached the Sports and Recreation Commission calling for the nullification of the results that saw incumbent Joe Mujuru and secretary-general Charmaine Chamboko being retained.
Ncube said contrary to the allegations, his province has an active league of 18 school teams, both boys and girls, who play throughout the year, and not just during the school term.
The province is also in the process of building a state-of-the-art basketball court at Mtshabezi High School, which they expect to be fully operational by the end of the year.
“We think it’s time to set the record straight; Matabeleland South has a dual league. The first being school-based leagues where we have players in the Under-18 category coming from schools. Our Nash ball games calendar runs for just the second term of each year then our league runs third and first terms to allow players to play the game throughout the year. Owing to the province being far and wide, we have since established community teams in Beitbridge and Gwanda and we are about to set up a third community league in Plumtree. Our league was affected by Covid-19 since we are using schools infrastructure and interfacing with learners was temporarily suspended and this has made it difficult to kick-start our games,” said Ncube.
Schools in the provincial league are Mtshabezi High, JZ Moyo High, Wanezi High, Matopo High, Embakwe High, Cyrene High, Manama High, Thekwane High and Plumtree High for the boys.
Girls’ teams are from Minda High, Empandeni High, Manama High, Wanezi High, Thekwane High, Plumtree High, Mtshabezi High, JZ Moyo High, Usher High, and Matopo High schools.
The province also has a number of highly qualified coaches and table officials that can officiate at the highest level.
“We have six female coaches, four with Buz Level 1 coaching certificates and two with Buz Level 2 coaching certificates. For men, we have seven with Buz Level 2 coaching certificates and one with Fiba Level 1. Over and above that we have five trained table officials, four of them being ladies, which we think is a good thing,” said Ncube.
For an affiliate to be in good standing with Buz, it must have paid affiliation fees, have proper structures and a running league.
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