“If you haven’t participated in the ZUSA games you haven’t gone through university!” Zimbabwe Universities Sports Association (ZUSA) President Tsitsi Muzuva says to FISU Student Ambassador Edward S. Gwaze.
“The most exciting thing about them is the coming together of students from all walks of life where they meet to compete, share, mingle and most of all have fun!” she continues.
“After all, our mission is to enrich the educational experience of the university athletes, and our vision is to become one of Southern Africa’s most visible and competitive tertiary sports organisation.”
The Zimbabwe Universities Sports Association (ZUSA) was formed in 1999 to encourage sporting competitions among universities and to develop top student-athletes. The founding member institutions were the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Africa University (AU), Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE), and University of Zimbabwe (UZ). The organisation has now grown to 12 member institutions.
The original sporting disciplines included Athletics, Basketball, Football, Netball, Tennis, and Volleyball. Today, the programme has further grown to include many other sports. ZUSA is registered to the Sports & Recreation Committee (SRC) – the governing body of all sporting activity in Zimbabwe – through the Zimbabwe Tertiary Institutions Sports Union (ZITISU) and it also aims to register to the SRC as an association in the future.
“ZUSA is working on increasing the number of competitions in a year, as well the introduction of university leagues,” Muzuva. “The idea is to have active sports participation throughout the year. However it’s unfortunate these short term plans have been affected by the corona virus pandemic and the economy, but we will keep the plans on the cards.”
Muzuva happens to be the first ever female President of ZUSA. “ZUSA, for the past 20 years was being run by men, that’s two decades!” she exclaims. “During that time I occupied key posts like Secretary General and Treasurer. I became the President at the right time when I was ready to bring in change through the experience I had gathered during my days when I was serving in other committees and boards. As the first female President I would make sure more girls take part in all sporting disciplines on offer.”
She also aims to organise workshops and conferences for female athletes, to motivate them to participate in competitive sporting activities. “If resources permit, we will partner with other regional, international universities and associations to share notes on how to empower our girls.”
In addition to sporting competitions, last year a ZUSA delegation – comprising of the outgoing ZUSA board and Sporting Directors of the member institutions – took part in an exchange visit to the United States of America. The Sports Exchange Visit Programme included activities such as sports clinics, professional meetings, theme-specific workshops, sports facility tours, cultural activities and sporting events and hospitality. Some of the lessons learnt, as observed in the outgoing ZUSA President’s report, included the need to establish scholarships for excelling athletes and for ZUSA to benchmark some of its processes with the NCAA, ACC and the Horizon League.
“ZUSA has continued to improve the way it manages its activities. The 2019 cluster games were outstanding because of the professional manner in which they were administered and managed,” explains Muzuva. “We are also proposing to have an annual sports awards ceremony this year, as having such events will mean more student participation with the motivation of getting an award at the end of the year.”
“Because of its structure, ZUSA is in constant touch with each university sports department through Sports Directors and Deans. Each sports department filters information down to students through their presidents and student bodies. ZUSA also makes use of emails and social media to reach out to its stakeholders.”