Rugby star refutes gay rumours
FORMER Zimbabwe international rugby player, Lloyd Machanjaira has dismissed as false stories circulating on the internet that he is having a sexual relationship with his male boss, Tapiwa Mangezi.
Since December last year, a series of articles have been published by a website claiming that Mangezi was sodomising Machanjaira, who works at his family-owned hotel in Bulawayo. Mangezi is also the vice-chairman of Matabeleland Warriors, where Machanjaira is the club captain.
In their last two stories, the website claimed to have interviewed Machanjaira and his wife Rumbidzai. The couple yesterday, however, insisted that they never spoke to any journalist.
“I’ve never been in any sexual relationship with Tapiwa Mangezi or with any man, this story is just fabricated. I don’t know what this person’s agenda is but I’ve never done that. I’ve never had an interview with any media person so that story is cooked up,’’ Machanjaira said.
Rumbidzai weighed in; “I never spoke to anyone from the media. It’s all lies, we are fine because I know my husband, he will never do anything like that so we are actually okay. People are just trying to destroy whatever he is trying to build, trying to destroy our marriage, but it’s not going to work because we know each other.”
The 32-year-old Machanjaira is worried that the claims by the website could lead to him being kicked out by a private school where he is conducting rugby coaching.
“My wife has really been strong, she has been supporting me through all this, work wise it’s really affecting my coaching now because when you work with young children the parents really get worried,’’ he said.
He said the private school has stood by him despite the claims. Mangezi said his legal representatives were dealing with the matter which has come as a surprise to him.
“My lawyers are handling this whole thing, this has really come as a shock. That website is not even based in Zimbabwe, they are destroying people’s lives because it’s written by faceless people,’’ Mangezi said.
At first, the parties involved had decided not to respond to the allegations since the website started publishing the stories from December last year, “but have decided that it was time to put the record straight”.