Shingi Matibiri, Sports Reporter
HARARE – Veteran boxing administrator Richard Hondo has blamed the ministry of Sports for boxer Taurai Zimunya‘s death.
The ministry is being singled out responsible for procrastinating on putting up a board to oversee the operations of boxing in the country.
Zimbabwe has been operation without a boxing and wrestling control board for some years with the Sports minister Kirsty Coventry dithering on the appointment of a new board since she came into office.
Zimunya (24) died on Monday morning from head injuries sustained in the third of a six round bout in Harare.
“In the first place, no one had the mandate to sanction that tournament because according to the Boxing and Wrestling Control Act Chapter 75, only the board has the powers to do so,” Hondo told Nhau.
“It is there in the Act and in black and white that all professional tournaments are the pre-requisite of the board to approve, and not an individual or the administration for that matter.”
The composition of a boxing board of control requires that there be a medical doctor among the members, or someone from the field.
Enacted in 1956, the Act seeks to protect all stakeholders of the sport, including boxers.
