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Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
“DON’T underestimate a woman who loves sports, particularly football,” that’s the belief that one Bulawayo woman subscribes to.
Many a time women who choose to fall in love with different sports have been frowned upon daring to invade a space reserved for men. However, times are changing, women and girls are now taking over the previously male-dominated and exclusive spaces, they are now attached to various sporting activities and many would not let anyone stand in their way.
This is the story of Sibonginkosi Moyo, a sports empress who fell in love with different codes at a young age. She follows cricket, netball, chess, volleyball and other sports codes but the beautiful game, football, tops her charts.
“My love for sports started in primary school. I excelled in a variety of sports disciplines way back then and I have participated in netball, volleyball, athletics, field events, and drum majorettes, I was an all-rounder and that’s when my love for sports started.
“My favourite is football and it is perceived as merely a sport by a great majority of people. To me though, it has been among the best sports I have been following ever since and I am hoping to have a surplus of life skills that I can use through it (football) as I become older. I would not trade the time I have already invested in the sport for anything given how beneficial it is to me,” she said.
Her favourite football club in Zimbabwe is Highlanders, she fell in love with Bosso thanks to her late brother who used to take her to Amahlolanyama’s home games.
“My late brother, Bheki, a devoted Highlanders fan, used to take me to all home games. At the time I did not comprehend anything but as he made more trips to the stadium with me I began to grasp more and honed my knowledge of the game and hence I wish to pursue a job related to it,” she told Saturday Chronicle.
A Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in Film, Television, and Media Studies student at Lupane State University, Moyo plays netball for her institution. At high school she received praise for her great shot-stopping skills at the National Association of Secondary Heads (NASH) games.
She was also selected to be a part of the team that represented Zimbabwe at the Softball World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa in 2011 but her dream could not be fulfilled due to financial constraints and a poor support system.
Despite her passion for sports, particularly the beautiful game, Moyo has not been successful in her attempts to land a job in a sports club.
“My belief is that barriers to women’s participation in football posts or organisational leadership include gender-based preconceptions and prejudices, power disparate settings, and gender discrimination. It is also unusual for women to have positions in athletics that are equal to or higher than those held by men, especially in sports perceived to be male-dominated,” she said.
The football passionate Sports Queen who has kept all her honours from high school and basic education pictures as a treasure at her family home on display said she hopes to have her own sports academy and a women’s football team.
“My sincere vision is to start from the lower rungs of the ladder in football issues, have an academy and maybe a girls/women’s team which will operate in its own premises. A place where young girls will be protected and not exposed to any form of abuse,” she said.
Like many women out there who have been called names due to the love they have for sports, Moyo has also been a victim but is resilient and will not allow any difficulty to determine how things turn out for her.
Moyo is always in touch with everything that is happening in the world of sports, be it local or international she keeps her followers on her social media updated with whatever is going on out there.
“Just come out of your nutshell and chase your dreams. If not now, then when?” is her message to all the women out there all over the world who are passionate about sports but are scared of coming out in the open due to societal judgments. -@brandon_malvin
Online Reporter