Rugwete bounces back

Sports Reporter
THREE years after stepping down as the Zimbabwe Karate Union president, Joe Rugwete has bounced back at the organisation, in the same position, following an election held over the weekend at the Sports and Recreation Commission offices in Harare.

Rugwete will be deputised by Tawanda Mufundisi, a seasoned karateka, who has represented the country at regional and international level.

Lizzie Mupure comes in as the secretary-general and George Maposa is the new treasurer.

Their term of office is for two years.

Rugwete got 32 votes to beat Eugene Moody, with five votes, and George Maposa, with 14, to the top post.

He takes over from Paul Danisa.

Rugwete left ZKU in 2017, with a year left before the expiry of his term of office.

He was linked with a move to the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee then but he said it was not the reason for his departure.

Following his return to the karate union over the weekend, Rugwete said his decision was influenced by members of the ZKU.

“I decided to come back to karate following numerous requests from members of the ZKU.

I then looked at the current state of affairs in karate and thought that the Union can benefit from my experience as an administrator.

“My vision remains to improve karate. We have a duty to develop athletes, technical officials, and administrators.

My impression on the current state of karate is that there is room for improvement in many ways,” Rugwete said.

One of the challenges that have continued to haunt the sport is lack of sponsorship and it is an area Rugwete and his team need to look at since it has resulted in some of the talented karatekas failing to fulfil their assignments.

Mufundisi said his desire was to unite the karate family.

“It’s time to unite semi-contact and full contact. And, also, to clean the mess in our so-kyokushin style. We have not been working together, there has been a lot of politics.

“We are going to have workshops, so far, we were being brought together by the Champion of Champions and Japanese Ambassador Cup.

We believe semi-contact has a lot to learn from full contact and full contact from semi-contact

“Our vision is to get our committee together and the first port of call is unity, then we approach the corporate world together,” said Mufundisi.

The new executive is expected to meet early next week.