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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
AFTER retaining the post of Zimbabwe Karate Union technical director full contact styles, Kumbirai Musinami says he is looking forward to taking the sport to the next level.
It will be his second term of office and is being joined by Fradson Shavi as technical director for semi-contact styles.
They are part of the management committee put in place by ZKU following the coming in of a new executive led by Joe Rugwete in February. The appointments are with effect from April 1.
The committee is expected to assist the karate mother body meet its target for the next two years.
Musinami will be hoping to build on the past achievements in the last few years including the continued exceptional performance of world champion Samson Muripo to inspire the next generation.
“This is a sign of confidence in me and I will do my best to take karate to higher standards of achievements. I wish to deliver so that Zimbabwe goes higher in world standings as far as karate is concerned.
“My expectation is to surpass our past achievements. We have produced regional champions, international champions and world champions in my previous term.
“We need to increase on the medals tally and we also need to improve in terms of empowering our officials and educating our members to attain various sporting qualifications as is to build a complete karate athlete. These are some of my expectations.
“The full contact family has always worked together, so I say to my colleagues let’s take this to another level. Together we have always achieved great results, we are called to carry the flag of our nation with pride and honour. Let’s rewrite the history of our sporting nation,” said Musinami.
The fourth dan black belt holder pointed out that despite several challenges they have faced over the years they have always pulled through.
The major drawback for most Zimbabwean sport codes has been lack of financial support and karate is one of those that have been limited in its potential because of the challenge. But for most of the karatekas it’s about passion for the sport that has kept them going. Other areas Musinami is hoping to work on include the spread of the sport to disadvantaged areas.
“Sport needs to be run professionally and this will be my drive as well to increase awareness of our sport in the disadvantaged and rural areas. Karate has to spread to all the country’s provinces. So together with the new ZKU board we have a lot to work on.
“I have confidence in the new board and we are well positioned for greater strides,” added Musinami.
The new executive is looking at long-term athlete development, development of technical officials and development of administrators as well as the image of the organisation to increase visibility.
Meanwhile, in a move expected to strengthen their structures the Zimbabwe Karate Union appointed a new management committee to help drive their goals for the next two years.
The appointment follows the elections that ushered in a new executive led by president Rugwete in February.
For the full contact styles Musinami retained the post of technical director. He is joined by chief referee Shihan Tendai Marange, who is one of the country’s top karate instructors.
Shavi is the semi-contact styles technical director and the chief referee will be announced in due course.
Rugwete said they are looking at four key areas in their bid to take the sport to the next stage and appointed team will be key in driving those targets.
“If you look at the qualities of the people we appointed we tried to get the best out of the karate stakeholders. I think this is the first time that we have gone out there to identify people with the requisite skills and qualifications for what we want to achieve.
“We want to work with the best team. It lessens the work for us as the executive because the day to day running of the organisation will be done by these people who we are calling a management committee.
“We are looking at four things, long-term athlete development, technical officials development and development of administrators and then the image of the organisation. We need to sought out the image of the organisation, this is why we have media managers, marketing executives that have experience and qualifications.
“We want to improve the image, increase visibility, increase awareness of karate in Zimbabwe, not that there is anything wrong with the image but we just want to take it a step higher or further from where it is,” said Rugwete.
Other members are media manager Conrad Mwanawashe, Sharlene Amoda who is the team manager while the trio of George Mutambu, Robson Mucheni and Malvern Chomusora will lead on the coaching side for full contact styles.
For semi-contact styles Godwin Murambiwa comes in as the marketing executive and media manager is Oswelled Ureke. Elizabeth Mukabeta and David Mandengenda are the team managers.
Winston Nyanhete, David Dube, Innocent Remwa, Gerald Muusha and United Kingdom-based Alison Nyoni are the coaches.
Tirivenyu Mutema is the legal advisor. Among some of their responsibilities, the two technical directors are expected to organise competitions and ensure training for coaches and referees.
“A technical director is an administrator, he is not a coach. His responsibility is to head the technical board which is going to be made up of provincial technical directors, coaches and referees. So basically his task is to make sure that our referees and coaches are well-trained and we are holding competitions and also to supervise coaches and referees.
“We have also appointed different coaches for the different categories that we find and coaches are coming in from the generation of people who have just retired from active fighting.
“If you look at David Dube, Winston Nyanhete . . . These are coaches that have done coaching classes, coaching seminars with the World Karate Federation and at regional level. So those are the people we are putting in our structures, they are quite useful,” said Rugwete.
With sporting activities on hold at the moment Rugwete said they are taking advantage of the break to ensure their structures are functional and work on their developmental plan as well as the strategic plan.
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