Two-horse race in HBA elections

IT’S a two-horse race at the Harare Basketball Association elections today when Sunny Mbofana battles Ngoni Mukukula for the chairmanship.

Mbofana goes into the election at the back of a successful stint in which he is largely credited with the stunning turnaround of Harare City Hornets in the last two years.

Hornets not only finished unbeaten in the B League to win promotion into the elite league, but they also won the Bob 92 Cup and were runners-up at the Swaziland invitational after losing to South African outfit Jozi Nuggets in the final.

Mbofana was also instrumental in helping Harare City’s football club win promotion into the Premiership as he was part of their executive while in Division One.

“It is indeed not a secret that our beautiful game of basketball has funding challenges and with this comes serious lack of growth and development,” said Mbofana.

“I have in mind just two main objectives which is the re-branding of HBA so that we start attracting funding and secondly to grow and develop the game.

“Re-branding starts with the right kind of women and men stepping up to take positions.’’

Mbofana has also organised the Harare Mayor’s International Invitational Basketball Tournament, currently sponsored to the tune of $10 000 and set for next month.

Mukukula is seeking a fresh mandate at the helm of the HBA having previously run the association.

The administrator who rose to fame with his Hoops for Hope programme is hopeful he can change things if given a new chance to run the province.

“I am confident that I will win the election. The fact that people with basketball expertise backed me to stand shows that they saw some qualities in me which can enable me to lead the association.

“However, I will take anything that comes out of the election since this is not war, but only a process of trying to democratise how the sport is run.

“Anyone who wins deserve every stakeholder’s support,” he said.