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Leonard Ncube – [email protected]
MOSI-OA-TUNYA High School
beat eight other schools to win the Matabeleland North provincial Tanganda Netball Competition at Marist Brothers Secondary School in Dete last Friday.
For the seventh time, the Victoria Falls based school will represent Matabeleland North at the national finals after carrying the province’s ticket in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2023.
The national Tanganda Netball National finals will be held this Thursday and Friday at Mutare Girls High in Manicaland.
The schools that participated were Mosi-oa-Tunya, Grace Mission and Marist Brothers, all from Hwange District, Siabuwa from Binga, Mavela from Tsholotsho, Somvubu from Bubi, Fatima from Lupane, Mtshabi from Nkayi and Sojini from Umguza.
Matabeleland North province head-in-charge of netball Seliphina Ndlovu who is the head of Dinyane Secondary School in Tsholotsho and also the interim committee treasurer of the Zimbabwe Netball Association said the level of the sport had improved in the province with the coming in of new challengers such as Siabuwa and Grace Mission.
She said Marist Brothers, Mosi-oa-Tunya and Grace Mission were seeded for purposes of the tournament as hosts, defending champions and district champions respectively.
“We are happy that we have new schools like Siabuwa, Grace Mission, Fatima and Mtshabi and this shows that the level of the sport has improved in schools. The tournament favourites were Siabuwa as they had beautiful play but they threw in the towel in the semis,” she said.

While the games were generally satisfactory, the champions believe they can do better.
“Our performance was average and we need to train harder. Yes we may have won as a school but we did this for the province and we need that support going to the national.
“ However, we thank our school authorities for the support and also our community for cheering us on. We had parents and learners that travelled with us to cheer the team on and it worked for us,” said Mosi-oa-Tunya netball coach Gugulethu Ndlovu who is also a netball tutor.
Mosi-oa-Tunya recently came second after Mabhikwa High School at the Nash sponsored tournament .
Mosi-oa-Tunya’s best player was Natalie Muyambo while Cleopatra Ngandu, who started playing netball last month, was a key player taking advantage of her 2.1 metres height which is recommended for a shooter.
Conjunatious Ncube who is also in the Under 17 Cosasa handball national team, was also influential in the team .
In the run up to the final, Mosi-oa-Tunya won all their matches beating Fatima 14-5, Somvubu 12-6 and Mavela 17-6 in the quarter final.
In the semi final Mosi-oa-Tunya beat Sojini 14-3 to book a place in the all Victoria Falls final with Grace Mission who they sent packing by 35-18 to become provincial champions.
In the other pool’s group stages, Siabuwa beat Marist Brothers 17-5 before losing 11-13 to Sojini who also beat Marist Brothers in the other match.
The quarter final had Siabuwa and Grace Mission with the Binga school winning by 15- 11. Siabuwa faltered in the semi final, losing to Grace Mission by 9-20 as Grace marched to the final with Mosi-oa-Tunya.
–@ncubeleon