The Zimbabwe Rugby Union Executive Committee and the Board would like to congratulate the ZRU President Mr Aaron Jani on his appointment to the continental body Rugby Africa’s Rugby Academy Sub-committee, as Chairperson.
This is another feather in Mr Jani’s profile in the continental game since his March 2019 election to Rugby Africa’s executive committee where the ZRU president emerged with the highest votes by any candidate on the Exco as 25 of the 27 delegates cast their ballots in his favour.
In the latest appointment made on 8 February 2021 and which follows on his appointment in November 2020 to the Women Advisory Committee, Mr Jani will chair the key Rugby Academy Sub-committee.
Rugby Africa has various committees responsible for every facet of the game. Among other committees is the Women’s Advisory Committee and many others.
The Rugby Committee in Africa is split into three sub-committees. There is the Performance sub-committee, which basically has the Nations competing for the right to represent Africa in the 2023 World Cup Rugby. The second sub-committee is the Academy sub-committee which has those rugby playing countries who aspire to be in the Performance group. The third tier is the Community level which basically has Nations who are in their infancy in Rugby terms with particular reference to their structures and performance.
The sub-committees’ main objective is to nurture nations in terms of their rugby and ensure a systematic progression of nations in terms of their governance structures and performance of teams, through a transparent promotion and relegation system.
The role of the Academy committee is to help those Nations to reach their full potential and those who progress will be able to challenge for places in the Performance Section of the pools. The main objective is to bridge the knowledge, experience and operational gap between rugby playing Nations for the good of Africa Rugby.
As Chairperson of the Academy sub-committee Mr Jani will provide leadership and help in selecting a team of competent individuals that will assist in monitoring, evaluating the performance of Academy nations, which in itself is no mean task. In addition his sub-committee will liaise with the Academy nations to assess any structural issues that may exist so that his committee can make appropriate recommendations to the Rugby Africa Executive Committee for appropriate action and policy formulation to develop the game of rugby in the Academy nations.
The ZRU President’s appointment means that as Zimbabwe we will be able to contribute meaningfully to the development of the game in Africa and also learn from other nations and compare notes thereby allowing us to fine-tune the way we do things in Zimbabwe for the development of our Rugby Community. We will also be interacting and taping into the very competent technical stuff from World Rugby and Rugby Africa which will be a major advantage.
The Zimbabwe rugby community wish you all the very best ZRU President Mr Aaron Jani on this new position at Rugby Africa. This appointment is also a vindication of the tremendous work he has done and continues to do for rugby in the country and the continental rugby body over the years.
It also a vote of confidence in the manner in which the ZRU has played its part in the growth of the national sport in particular and the continental game at large.