Zim Boxing Act shuts doors for women

The Standard

By Albert Marufu

20 May 2013

Paul Nenjerama, the president of the Zimbabwe National Boxing and Wrestling Board of Control (ZNBWBC) has revealed that the current boxing Act needs to be amended to make it gender sensitive.

Nenjerama, whose board replaced the one headed by Richard Hondo in February, said the current ZNBWBC Act (1956), does not allow women in Zimbabwe to join the sport.

Section 1 (c) II of the Act which was reviewed in 1959, 1962, 1963, 1972 and 1974 before becoming statutory instrument 362/1980 states that: “Provided that the board shall not register any person as a boxer who is not of the male sex.”

That means under the current Act, boxers such as Monalisa Sibanda and Diana Makumbe, among a host of others, have been boxing illegally.

“For the first quarter of our tenure, we have been trying to put our house in order [and] that is when we realised that the Act has to be amended to allow women to fight. We are all aware that the world over women now box so something has to be done to the Act,” said Nenjerama.

Nenjerama also said they faced problems in accessing emblems from the previous board led by Hondo, that had been in power for three decades.

The Hondo-led board was dissolved towards the end of last year by the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture David Colart for incompetence.

“There was no proper handover-taker over from the previous board and at first our efforts to be given ZNBWBC seals were met with resistance until the intervention of Minister Coltart. We had to make the previous board understand that we were not fighting them at all and that is when we got the seals that would enable us to start licensing boxers and promoters,” he said.

The former journalist added that they hoped to finish licensing the boxers and promoters by end of July.

“From our projection, most boxers should be licensed by the end of the second quarter. We have been comparing the licensing fees with those in the region and we hope to come up with a reasonable figure soon,” he said.

The former educationist said his board is also drawing up a database of all boxers and promoters in the country.

“We want to lay a strong foundation during our three-year term. It is sad that some of the bouts that were being organised had to be postponed. I understand that Clive Musonda wanted to promote a world title fight in June and we had to tell him that we should put our house in order first,” he said.

The new board also consists of medical practitioner Farai Muchena and promoters Edgar Peter Hammond and Lorraine Muringi.

Other members of the board are Tsitsi Muzuva, Alexander Kwangwari, media practitioner Gilbert Munetsi and Rangarirai Charles Dzimba.