‘RACISM STALKS RUGBY’ Losson Mtongwiza
Sables team manager Losson Mtongwiza

Sables team manager Losson Mtongwiza

Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
A RACISM storm has engulfed the Zimbabwe Rugby Union with Sables team manager, Losson Mtongwiza, making sensational claims that black officials are being systematically sidelined from the game’s structures as the national team inches closer to a place at the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England.

An explosive letter, written by Mtongwiza to ZRU president John Falkenberg, paints a picture of a game being torn apart by racial tensions amid claims that the blacks are either being phased out of key positions or frozen out of the system by a powerful white clique of administrators who have taken control of the Union.

Mtongwiza claims the rich pickings likely to be generated by a successful campaign to play at the 2015 Rugby World Cup has acted like a magnet that is luring people back into the game while a number of black officials, who toiled for years when it was bleak and sacrificed a fortune to help the team, are slowly being sidelined.

He claims meetings, which are exclusively for the white Sables officials, are being held and while he believes head coach Brendon Dawson is not part of that cartel, he notes in his letter that the gaffer is at the risk of being used by that powerful clique to further their interests.

Black officials, claims Mtongwiza, have been labelled “deadwood” by the ZRU leadership, amid charges that they cannot secure sponsorship needed to sustain the team but the whites who have failed to bring in sponsorship, including one who appears to have been specifically hired for that job, haven’t been slapped with such a disparaging label.

“I have come to a conclusion that it is more difficult to work with the Rugby Union under your leadership if one is black,” Mtongwiza says in his letter to Falkenberg, which has been leaked to The Herald.

“I am not saying you are a racist but, put blatantly, there is racism being practiced in your Union and I will illustrate it below.

“In 2013, on a public platform, you mentioned that we were deadwood that’s why we cannot get any sponsorship in. This is despite the fact that we were busting our guts to make sure the team continues to fulfil fixtures and remain competitive (and) we spent our own money to ensure we progressed.

“I spoke to Bongai (Zamchiya) and we adopted this quiet diplomacy. David Crouch worked for Dominus Sports when I meet him in February of 2012.

“He has not brought US$5 000 to the Sables to date since March/April 2012.

“He was supposed to source sponsorship and help manage all the sponsors we would have found.

“To my surprise he was never called deadwood, even in private. In fact, he got employed by the Union in August 2013 according to what we understand.

“How then do you call one section deadwood and go on and employ another one for a full-time position when they haven’t shown any results?”

British expatriate, Liam Middleton, who in October last year returned for another spell as the ZRU technical director, appears, in Mtongwiza’s submission, as one of the strategic moves by that clique to have their whites-only management team in place for a final assault, in Madagascar in June this year, to win a ticket to the Rugby World Cup in England next year.

“In comes Liam Middleton — a professional who will add value to the local game if guided but will achieve nothing if unguided. He was let loose to bring back normalcy to a supposedly chaotic situation,” Mtongwiza says in his letter.

“LM (Liam Middleton) has proved that he is here to take over. We have not rejected LM, instead we have tried to make him see the history and tried to work with him. He has come out very arrogantly telling us that without him we are not going to qualify.

“Politely we have told him we had a plan to qualify. He has had fights with everyone as his style is doing the job not delegating and supervising.

“He has come in with a very strong attitude to restructure everything. He has told us that he wants Bongai Zamchiya, Chairman of Sables, gone because he is in his way. Several emails went back and forth between LM and BZ with you and CD (Colleen de Jonge, ZRU vice-president) copied but you two stayed out and watched.

“When I supported BZ by saying we need all the people involved to stay LM took it as a challenge on his mission.”

Mtongwiza claims that it’s not a coincidence that the other Sables official, who has run into problems with the ZRU leadership, is physiotherapist Abigail Mnikwa and the challenges she is facing are all related to the shadowy take-over plan that will see her replaced by a white physiotherapist.

“If we qualify for the World Cup we will get up to US$1 million for preparation. Not all will be cash but air tickets and support to play matches for preparations,” Mtongwiza says in his letter.

“Now that we are about to qualify we are all not needed — especially the Manager, the Chairman and the physio. That the World Cup is around the corner and all three black people in the Sables management have a problem leaves me to conclude that there is racism at play.”

The plot, says the Sables manager, was to replace Mnikwa with a white physiotherapist and relations had deteriorated so much that white players, treated by her, were now having to see a second opinion with a white physiotherapist.

“Abigail has treated all players, black or white, without claiming any payment. She has recently treated Keith Murray for free from our national team medical bag,” said Mtongwiza in his letter.

“Now that Abigail went and came back, the Union continuously pushes her to pay back for the flights paid for by the IRB because they paid for Austin Jeans, their preferred candidate.

“That is wrong and proves the same point I highlighted earlier.

“This is where we begin to see things just being done on colour.

“When Abigail did not come to camp on the Friday in Bulawayo before Namibia we had to get a physio from Mpilo hospital who charged us US$80 a day. Abigail didn’t charge us for a week in camp in Bulawayo.

“We only paid her the same per-diem as the players. While in camp in Bulawayo two players got injured and they were seen by Abigail.

On their return from Bulawayo they were sent to Margie Gibson (another physio) to see if what Abigail is saying is correct.

“Does that give anyone confidence or it just shows that there is someone white waiting in the wings?”

Mtongwiza claims the Sables were virtually surrendered into their hands, as they were not getting any funding from the ZRU, and they had to ensure they were “transported, fed and paid,” but now that a place at the 2015 Rugby World Cup beckons, “ interest in the team has grown from all angles.”

He says he has injected US$24 000, in personal funds, during his time with the team while Zamchiya, has injected US$16 000, but all their sacrifice is now being overlooked as white officials position themselves into strategic portfolios to run the team at the 2015 Rugby World Cup

The Sables team manager claims he was offered a contract that did not spill over into the 2015 Rugby World Cup and this buttresses his point that a team leadership, exclusively made of only white officials, was being put into place to manage the side in England.

Tomorrow in The Saturday Herald you can read the full text of Losson Mtongwiza’s explosive letter to ZRU president, John Falkenberg.

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