NAAZ suspends athletes

Harare Bureau
THE National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe have suspended the pair of Francis Zimwara and Kenneth Chibwana for inappropriate behaviour during the African Games. Zimwara and Chibwana were members of Team Zimbabwe for the African Games in Congo Brazzaville last month.

They were competing in athletics. There are allegations that Zimwara refused to compete in the 200m event during the Games and refused to wear the kit of the team.

Chibwana is alleged to have assaulted fellow team member Luck Chitimbe, who is visually impaired, at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as the team was on its way from the Games.

Speaking to our sister paper The Herald yesterday, NAAZ president Tendai Tagara said they have written to the two athletes notifying them of their suspension pending investigations into their cases.

“We’ve suspended Zimwara and Chibwana pending investigations.

“The suspension is with immediate effect and we’ve sent them their letters of suspension. They won’t be participating in any athletics event until the hearing.

“We got a report from the chef de mission and the team manager for athletics on what transpired at the Games.

“The nation is looking up to you and then you say you don’t want to compete, that’s insubordination. We’ve one athlete, a police officer but he assaults another athlete, we don’t condone such behaviour.

“So we’ve presented the issue to our disciplinary committee and there’ll be a disciplinary hearing because we want to give them the opportunity to give their side of the story.

“For Chibwana we’ve sent a letter to the police authorities.

“We don’t expect such behaviour from a police officer,” said Tagara.

Tagara said as the athletics mother body they are mandated to deal with their athletes and notify the Sports Commission on the measures they would have taken against the athletes.

“The athletes misbehaved in Congo Brazzaville and the team management had a hearing before they referred the matter to the national association,” said Tagara.

“We’ll also inform the Sports Commission on the outcome.”