Online Reporter
Tinashe Kusema
Zimpapers Sports Hub
AT the time of his death, Ngoni Mukukula was part of a small team tasked with reviewing and making recommendations for a new Basketball Union of Zimbabwe (BUZ) constitution.
Renowned sporting administrator David Mutambara headed the team at the behest of the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC). Mukukula also played an integral part in the formation of UZ Stars, the team that was the developmental squad of one of his former rival teams, Varsity Leopards.
Admire Masenda, Roderick Takawira and Addison Chiware — the coaches of Leopards, Cameo and JBC — once dreaded travelling to the Dzivaresekwa basketball courts, which are the home of Mukukula’s Raiderz team.
While Cameo and Raiderz were rival teams from the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, they have a shared history that dates back to their time in the HBA ‘B’ League.
The late Raiderz coach and director of the ‘Hopes 4 Hope’ programme died on January 5 after complaining of severe pain.
He was 52.
Mukukula was buried on Thursday at Glen Forest Cemetery, with the occasion bringing together Zimbabwe basketball’s past and present. While the procession was rather sad, and tragic even, the general atmosphere brought shades of Ernest Hemmingway’s famous quote on death and living: “Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived that distinguish one man from another.” In that regard then, Mukukula was truly a “great man” and “loyal and unwavering basketball servant”.
“I think Ngoni was just incredible; we take the things we do for granted, as little things, and only appreciate them once they are gone,” said Mutambara. He revealed Mukukula’s last known project.
“At the time of his passing, he was part of an SRC committee I was chairing which was reviewing the basketball constitution and we had just submitted our preliminary report a week before he died,” went on Mutambara.
Mutambara, a former SRC chairperson himself, was one of the people who knew Mukukula from both a professional and personal capacity. Takawira is the other.
“Well, I was a football person before I started doing anything in basketball,” said Takawira. “I think the transition started sometime back in 1995, and Ngoni is one of three people I started working with.” On their rivalry, Takawira chronicled how both Raiderz and Cameo were promoted into the ‘A’ League in 1998 and went on to be one of the four most dominant teams over the next decade or two.
“I can share over a dozen anecdotes of the time we shared the court, but two stand out,” went Takawira.
“The first was from the season we were both promoted after we finished first and second, with one defeat (to each other) and separated only by points difference.
“Raiderz, as you would expect, would be the team that would end that run. The match, played at the UZ courts, saw everyone in Harare attend and celebrate our one-point defeat. We even joined in the celebration, drinking and merry making, up until the point we remembered that everyone was rejoicing in our defeat.”
