The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
INTERVIEWS for the three vacant positions at the Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU) will start this week with appointments to be made by the end of the month.
ZRU at the end of last month advertised the post of director of rugby, chief executive officer as well as national fifteens coach with the closing date for applications being last Thursday.
A technical and appointments committee which is led by former ZRU director of rugby Brighton Chivandire will this week start conducting the interviews with the view to find suitable candidates. The other members of that committee are former Sables coaches, Bill Cornish, Godwin
Murambiwa, Zimbabwe Rugby Referees President Gerald Chipumha and human resources expert Elijah Nyakurerwa.
A reliable source familiar with the recruitment process indicated that unless something stops the course of action, ZRU are looking to have filled the three vacancies by the end of this month.
“Interviews will start this week, the Sables coach and other appointments should be in place by end of the month, barring anything that can stop the whole process,’’ said the source.
Ten coaches, five local and the same number of foreigners have applied for the vacant Sables coaching job while 14 individuals have shown an interest in the director of rugby post. It could not be ascertained how many people applied for the CEO’s post.
Last week, the Aaron Jani led ZRU terminated arrangements that were put in place by the Nyararai Sibanda leadership which had appointed Nsikelelo Sibanda as acting director of rugby and Blessing Chiutare as substantive CEO. Strangely, Sibanda and Chiutare were never given contracts, despite the former being appointed in October 2016 while the latter was hired in May 2017.
Chiutare and Sibanda have since engaged a lawyer to challenge ZRU’s decision to relieve them of their duties, a move which could scuttle the union’s hunt for a new CEO and director of rugby.
The Sables have been without a coach since August last year when ZRU disbanded the Cyprian Mandenge led technical team after a disastrous campaign in the Rugby Africa Gold Cup which saw Zimbabwe finish fifth out of six countries with their only victory recorded over Senegal in Dakar.
Finding a new coach for the Sables should be the biggest priority for the ZRU with the 2018 Gold Cup due to start in June. Winners of this year’s Gold Cup will automatically qualify for next year’s Rugby World Cup to be staged in Japan while the team in second place also stands a chance of making it to the tournament via the repêchage process where they will play against runners up from other continental qualifiers.
Sibanda was appointed in an acting capacity following Chivandire’s resignation in September 2016 while the CEO’s position was left vacant in June of the same year when Colleen de Jonge threw in the towel. -@Mdawini_29
