They are particularly concerned that the act stipulates that the sport of boxing should be restricted to men only. Chapter 8, section (11) of the Zimbabwe National and Wrestling Act reads, “The Zimbabwe National Boxing Control Board shall not register any person as a boxer or a wrestler who is not of the male sex.”
Board chairman Paul Nenjerama revealed they had asked the ministry to revisit the act. “I am waiting to hear from them. We cannot continue to live in the past for this should have been corrected long back,” said Nenjerama.
Nenjerama said the act was discriminatory as the world had changed and boxing had spread to include females, including Zimbabwe’s Monalisa Sibanda.
The vice chairperson of the board, Lorraine Muringi, expressed shock that the situation had been allowed to remain unchanged 35 years after Zimbabwe was admitted to international sport.
Muringi they had continued to register female boxers despite the act, as they inherited the registration process from the Richard Hondo board that had been in office between 1980 and 2012.
Post published in: Zimbabwe Sports News