ZHF reflect on ‘successful’ year

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
ALTHOUGH a lot still needs to be done to turn around the fortunes of handball in this country, the Zimbabwe Handball Federation executive led by Stewart Sanhewe is satisfied with the progress they have made since assuming office late last year. The ZHF executive was elected into office last December after the suspension of the previous one for non-compliance with the Sports Commission Act.

And upon election, the leadership promised to revive the sport which had been mostly played at junior level with schools being more active while there wasn’t much happening at senior level. Sanhewe said they have been focusing on corporate governance to ensure they are in good books with the country’s supreme sports bodies such as the Sports Commission and the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee.

“This year was our first year in office, whereupon we took over without any handover-take-over procedures. The first thing we worked on was corporate governance. We had to ensure that all provincial structures are properly constituted and functional.

“Second, we had to set up commissions to assist the national executive board in the management of handball activities.

“Terms of reference were drawn and given to all commissions to guide them in the execution of their duties. We empowered them to run the commissions within the confines of the terms of reference and ensure that they work towards developing the game of handball for the benefit of athletes and other stakeholders.

“Re-registration with ZOC was a milestone achievement as our members benefited from various courses that were offered by ZOC,” said Sanhewe.

While some provinces are now running provincial leagues, the national federation still has a mammoth task to try and revive national teams that have not been active for sometime now.

And they have engaged Zambia for friendly matches on December 16 in Lusaka as they take steps towards turning their plans into a reality.

Sanhewe said sponsorship has been their challenge although they are making some inroads.

“Sponsorship still remain a challenge, but opportunities are beginning to unbundle and my feeling is that those that will work with us in 2018 will benefit as we are the most growing and hottest brand in sport.

“This year has provided us a platform to select players for various national teams per category, from juniors to seniors,” added Sanhewe.

After the friendlies in Zambia, local clubs are set to meet in Harare on December 22 for National Championships. The competition was initially scheduled for November 25, before it was moved to this month.

ZHF vice-president, who is also the chairperson of the technical commission, Alfos Mhondiwa, said several provinces have expressed interest in the tournament.

“We had said two clubs per province, but there was an outcry so we opened it to allow more clubs. We are expecting three clubs from each province. So far about six provinces have showed their preparedness to come, but varying on numbers in terms of clubs,” said Mhondiwa.

The event will allow the national federation to do some stocktaking on the competitiveness of clubs.

“It’s more like an exam and also we are celebrating our year as handball. We had an improvement on league structure this year, seven provinces are playing. We were not that active at senior level before,” added Mhondiwa.

Some of the programmes they have had this year include the “Handball at School” courses targeting mainly teachers and were done under the guidance of International Handball Federation instructor Helmut Martin in Harare, Kadoma and Bulawayo with all provinces taking part.

They also brought in Swiss coach Rolf Haussener for their periodic camp held in September, with some of the selected players being considered for the national teams.

Haussener led the camp, working with Farai Gwisai and Cleopatra Mareverwa, who were appointed the men and women’s coaches respectively.

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