Zimbabwe: Volleyball Return to Mufakose

26 June 2024
The Herald (Harare)
By Ivan Zhakata

MUFAKOSE, one of Harare's oldest suburbs, was buzzing with activity as volleyball fixtures made a huge comeback at the weekend at Mufakose "A" Youth Centre.

The event, organised by the Harare Volleyball Association under the theme "Taking volleyball to the community" and "Fighting drug and substance abuse is our duty collectively," saw several teams competing.

The tournament featured 15 matches for men's teams and seen matches for women's teams.

Spectators were treated to an exciting opening day on Saturday, which featured the current top four women's teams as OH thrashed Buse 3-0, while NABA were also 3-0 victors over BVC.

The day started with a match between Harare City and UZ Wolves, followed by a highly-anticipated police derby between Support Unit and Black Mambas.

Later on Saturday, Black Mambas faced Harare City, followed by a top-of-the-table clash between league leaders Support Unit and second-placed UZ Wolves.

The men's championship saw NABA and Black Rhinos battling it out and the excitement continued on Sunday with UZ Wolves and NABA clashing, which the latter claimed 3-2.

Vice-chairperson of the Harare Volleyball Association, Vengai Nyaude said their thrust was to take volleyball to the community, lobbying young adults to refrain from taking drugs and substance abuse.

We have seen that we have been playing games at Morris Depot, Support Unit, and other learning institutions such as the University of Zimbabwe where there are good facilities and we realised that we were leaving communities behind," he said.

"We then resorted to start playing games in our various communities with the first league fixtures taking place in Chitungwiza two weeks ago.

"We wanted the Chitungwiza community to know and embrace volleyball and we also did the second round there while we were making arrangements to host the third round in Mufakose.

"After having received the authority to host our games in Mufakose we had our third round of fixtures and it was well attended by sports enthusiasts in the suburb.

"Our main thrust is to take volleyball to various communities in Harare so that people get to know the sport while we urge youth to refrain from taking drugs and substance abuse." It was a thrilling finale, a perfect comeback for the Mufakose community that has produced legendary volleyball players like Banny Manokora, Tongoona Nyagura, and Peter Chitashu.

Mufakose has also been a breeding ground for tennis talent, with Martin Dzuwa, Peter Nyamande, and Clifford Mapfumo emerging from this community.

Results:

Men:

UZ Wolves 2-3 Black Mambas, Black Rhinoz 3-1 SU, OH 3-0 Buse, NABA 3-0 BVC, Black Mambas 2-3 Black Rhinos, Ruwa 3-1 Manyame Falcons, Support Unit 3-0 Buse, NABA 3-2 UZ

Women:

Ruwa 1-3 Manyame Falcons, Buse 0-3 Manyame Falcons, Ruwa 3-0 Buse

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