The Sunday News
“Leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It is about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it.”
These are the words of Roy Phiri the former chairman of Matabeleland Amateur Athletics Board (MAAB). He is of the view that a leader in any position should motivate his subjects, failure to do so results in failure.
Besides being the chairman he had a stint in the football pitch turning out for Combat Front FC Under-14, 16 and 18.
He also played for Olympics FC, a breakaway team from Highlanders FC when veteran football coach Barry Daka was the player-coach for the side.
Daka described him as: “One of the guys who helped Olympics become a formidable force. He was winger and scored a number of goals.”
While showcasing his talent at the Daka-coached side he suffered an ankle injury when his side clashed against Mzilikazi Swallows and that marked his swansong for his football career.
He had to take a break not too long after he ventured into athletics and joined Bulawayo Bottlers Athletics Club from 1988 up to 1994 and doubled up as a coach and manager.
How did he join MAAB? “While I was with the Bulawayo Bottlers Athletics Club, Mr Charles Chunda, the then vice-chairman of MAAB invited me to join MAAB,” he says.
He says he did not think twice and joined the organisation. He credits Chunda for playing an instrumental role in making him believe in himself and encouraged him to contest for the provincial secretary position. He did and won it. After serving with distinction in that position he decided to ascend the leadership ladder.
Fortunately those who were involved in athletics believed in his leadership qualities. As a result he was voted the MAAB chairman in 1995, a position which he held for four years. He is the administrator credited for incorporating National School Heads into MAAB. He says that helped the development of the sport.
“We developed a mutual relationship between National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) and National Association of Primary School Heads (Naph). That helped in developing a systematic way of doing things as the school authorities from primary level monitored the athletes up to secondary level,” he said.
He continued: “90 percent of the schools ended up affiliating with us and as such a number of athletes benefited a lot as they secured scholarships to study abroad.”
He says when he came into the office there were about four clubs namely Bulawayo bottlers, Wankie (Hwange), 1 Brigade and How Mine.
“We had to rope in clubs like Security Mills, NRZ, Highlanders, Dunlop, Datlabs, Arenel, Turnall and Sparrows”.
His board also introduced a policy to scout for talent in the rural areas. He says they had to go as far as Lupane and Binga to tap raw promising talent and their strategy paid dividends.
“We worked hand in glove with rural school heads in identifying potential athletes. At Mandlethu secondary school we identified Sibangani Nyoni, Singazi Dube and Sibusisiwe Nyoni. All the athletes went on to represent Zimbabwe in junior women’s cross-country Zone Six champions. Notably, Sibangani went on to represent Zimbabwe in Mauritius where she won a gold medal in 800 metres juniors’ category and silver in 1500 metres,” he said.
However, he says his worst moment was when Bulawayo province was beaten all systems out in national competitions while they boasted of top athletes like Juma Phiri, Samukeliso Moyo, Margret Mahohoma and Zephania Ncube.
Phiri says before he joined MAAB few organisations sponsored the competition. Datlabs and Hunyani were the main sponsors.
“We managed to lure companies like Edgars who sponsored the 21-km competition and Coca-Cola who sponsored the Bulawayo Lalf Marathon. We also introduced the Four-minute Mile Challenge and Schweppes executive challenge,” he says.
He says Bulawayo was the first province to honour the athletes who had performed well during the year.
“We were the first province to honour our top performing athletes with accolades; that gesture helped in motivating them to give their best and that is why we were ranked among the best,” he says.
He prides himself in producing top athletes like Grey Mavera, Sikhumbuzo Dlamini, and Bigboy Moyo, Arnold Payne, Ndabezinhle Mdlongwa, Samukeliso Moyo among many. The athletes raised the Zimbabwean flag high in foreign lands and they continue to do so.
There was a time when all the competitions for road races were conducted in low density suburbs but their board had to change that and it worked for the good.
“We made it mandatory that the race will start at White city stadium and finished there. We also involved members of the community as we entrusted them to provide water at water points. This strategy generated a lot of interest among the community members. As a result they started to love the sport that was evidenced by parents when they recommended their children to join athletics at school,” he said.
He said through NASH and NAPH they encouraged sport masters, Physical Education (PE) teachers to take up coaching. He says as a result a number of teachers took the advice seriously. One of the former teachers who took coaching seriously is Bhekuzulu Khumalo who is a sports science lecturer at National University of Science Technology (Nust). Another notable figure is James Rugwevere who is now a sports master.
His major highlight was when Zimbabwe hosted Zone Six Youth Games that were held in Harare. He says majority of the officials were from Bulawayo.
Feeling that he had done enough he had to resign from the position he held for five years.
He laments the fact that former administrators and athletes are not involved in national body athletics.
“They could proffer worthwhile advice that would take athletics to greater heights. They are knowledgeable and they know what could be done to develop sport and lure sponsors,” he said.
He says athletes should may hay while the sunshine.
“The life of an athlete is unpredictable so those who have the opportunity should invest so that they would have a fallback when they retire,” he says.
He is now a car dealer.
