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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
THE Bulawayo Nash head-in-charge of athletics Peter Gambiza has been accused of imposing a teacher from his school Northlea High on the Zimbabwean squad’s technical team for the Confederation of Schools Sport Associations of Southern Africa (Cossasa) tournament in Botswana.

Vusumuzi Mlilo was selected ahead of the Bulawayo Nash athletics team head coach James Rugwevera from Mpopoma High School, who led Bulawayo to a first place finish at the just ended Nash national schools’ athletics competition held at White City Stadium. The victory ended Bulawayo’s 20-year struggle of breaking into the top three.

“We are shocked really. Here is a teacher who has brought pride to the province, but because someone is in charge of athletics, he decides to recommend a teacher from his school. We all know that the guy, who has been recommended has been part of the provincial coaching structures for the past seven or so years during which Bulawayo performed dismally. When the coaching personnel were changed this year, the province came first in a national competition and surely such a coach, who was also in charge of the Youth Games team that again got gold in Hwange, deserves to be rewarded for his efforts,” said a school head who requested anonymity.

Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Cossasa technical committee Arthur Maphosa said they don’t impose coaches on the team, but are given by the heads in charge.

“We don’t impose coaches; we ask the winning province through the provincial head in charge to provide us with its best coach and Mlilo was given to us. We truly don’t choose because we believe the winning province knows best. This is how we got Mlilo, unless Gambiza favoured Mlilo, which would be unfortunate,” said Maphosa.

When contacted for comment, Gambiza claimed Mlilo had better coaching qualifications than Rugwevera, but was at pains to justify how the provincial team was under the tutelage of an “unqualified” coach. “What coaching qualifications does Rugwevera have? We look at qualifications when going for such big competitions.”