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Ellina Mhlanga, Harare Bureau
THE Zimbabwe Handball Federation finally held their elections over the weekend in Harare, which ushered in a new substantive executive led by Stewart Sanhewe.

The elections were originally scheduled for last year but there was a lot of in-fighting, which saw the then leadership led by Amon Madzvamuse failing to fulfil the task.

They were then suspended in March this year for failing to comply with the Sports Commission’s Act.

Sanhewe got eight votes to defeat Ephas Mahachi, who had four at an elective special general meeting held at the Sports Commission’s offices.

He will be deputised by Alfos Mhondiwa, who amassed eight votes against Alan Mandeya’s four.

The newly elected president said they have a lot of work ahead of them and is optimistic of the future.

“We have got a lot of work ahead of us. Yesterday (Saturday) when I gave my speech, I indicated that we would like SRC to assist us as much as possible in the running of handball. What we need is guidance from them.

“We need to make sure we tie up the loose ends. We need to put structures in place and have our strategic plan and once it’s in place we go back and implement that,” said Sanhewe.

The other members of the new executive are Edson Chiroodza, who comes in as the secretary-general and Josiah Sithole is the new treasurer.

Chiroodza got seven votes to prevail over Clemence Tauro and Joan Takafuma, who had four and one vote respectively. Sithole had 11 votes against Claver Boterere’s one vote.

The new executive will be in charge of handball affairs for the next four years.

Sanhewe, who has been involved in handball since 2013 as the treasurer for Bulawayo before becoming the chairperson for the province, said they are hoping to have their first meeting soon.

“First of all handball administration has not been active for over a year. So what we need to do first is to have a meeting with the new board on the 16th or 17th (December) to map the way forward.

“We have to come up with a strategic plan for the next four years and come up with the formation of a technical committee that will run various facets of handball administration such as the referees’ committee.

“We have to look at coming up with league games. We are going to start at district level, then feed into provincials and the provincials will feed into national league. But the nitty-gritty will be discussed at the next meeting

“We have to come up with a calendar of events for the year and fundraising events,” Sanhewe said.

Handball has been more active at junior level with junior teams, mostly from schools participating in various regional and international tournaments such as the Partille Cup.

However, Sanhewe said while there is going to be continuity on the various activities they have to be spread across the country and they will also be focusing on the senior teams.

“There is going to be continuity in terms of the activities that have been going on. The way it has been happening, it’s been to a few provinces but we want to spread it across the country. We want our junior teams to go out as national teams.

“We want to also make sure that our senior teams go for all regional and international tournaments,” said Sanhewe.