By Sports Reporter
Three Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU) administrators were recently appointed to continental body, Rugby Africa’s committees in charge of different departments.
The three appointees are the ZRU president, Aaron Jani, who was appointed as Rugby Academy Sub-committee chairperson, Zimbabwe Rugby Referees President Abigail Kawodza who was appointed to the sub-committee in charge of player welfare and chairperson of Women’s Rugby Abigail Mnikwa who was appointed to RA’s committee on leadership and trainings.
In a statement, ZRU enlightened on the role that Jani will be playing within RA.
“The Rugby Committee in Africa is split into three sub-committees. There is the Performance sub-committee, which basically has the Nations competing for the right to represent Africa in the 2023 World Cup Rugby. The second sub-committee is the Academy sub-committee which has those rugby playing countries who aspire to be in the Performance group. The third tier is the Community level which basically has Nations who are in their infancy in Rugby terms with particular reference to their structures and performance.
“The sub-committees’ main objective is to nurture nations in terms of their rugby and ensure a systematic progression of nations in terms of their governance structures and performance of teams, through a transparent promotion and relegation system”, read the statement.
As Chairperson of the Academy sub-committee Mr Jani will provide leadership and help in selecting a team of competent individuals that will assist in monitoring, evaluating the performance of Academy nations, which in itself is no mean task.
In addition, his sub-committee will liaise with the Academy nations to assess any structural issues that may exist so that his committee can make appropriate recommendations to the Rugby Africa Executive Committee for appropriate action and policy formulation to develop the game of rugby in the Academy nations.
Bustop TV spoke to ZRU board member and Women’s Rugby Chairperson, Abigail Mnikwa, who was elated about the appointment.
“Personally, it is very humbling to be recognized at that level. It is also exciting to see handwork paying off. It (the various appointments) goes to show the depth of experience and knowledge within ZRU,” said Mnikwa.
