The athlete has resurfaced at a community sports club in Sizinda, Bulawayo where he is a keen netballer and boxer.
“People have said a lot about my gender and they will talk until they are exhausted but no amount of talk will stop me from competing as a boxer or playing netball. I now play for Sizinda Queens and will continue until only God knows when,” a defiant Sithole said.
“I do not care what people say about me. I am not Samukeliso Sithole whom people purport me to be. It is not my problem that I have some beard and a hoarse voice,” he said insisting, “her name is Gamuchirai Sibanda”.
The Zimbabwe Amateur Boxing Association (Zaba) last year barred the same athlete from competitive boxing after resurfacing in Chiredzi where he became an instant “hero” in the sugar town due to his sporting talents.
He was also gainfully employed by a boxing stable in the town.
Taonga Muzhanye, an official with the Triangle Boxing Stable said since the pugilist’s cover was blown last year, he fled Chiredzi and has never been seen in the town again.
“He never came back here since he was unmasked. It is over seven months now since we last saw him,” Muzhanye said.
A multiple medal winner, Sithole was also known as Mduduzi Ngwenya in Silobela where he grew up until he was sniffed out in 2005. Four female athletes, who turned for Lancashire Steel club, were the star witnesses at his trial.
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He was charged with impersonation and causing psychological damage to teammates after they discovered that he was masquerading as a female athlete. He would walk into the changing room while other female athletes were undressing or watched them while showering.
Sithole also had the sports world agog when in his defence, he claimed that he was born with both male and female genitals. An examination by doctors later failed to corroborate his story.
Six witnesses, including two doctors, told the court that the athlete was not a hermaphrodite, after which he admitted to being a man. He was jailed for four years in 2005, but was released in December 2007 after serving part of his jail term, for “good behaviour”.
The then 18-year-old won the only gold medal for Zimbabwe at the Southern Region Championships in Botswana in June 2004. He also scooped five gold medals and a bronze in long jump, shot-put, javelin, high jump and 400m hurdles at a provincial youth championships in Masvingo, while competing as a female.
The Lancashire Steel Athletics club runner was arrested while waiting for a train with friends in Kwekwe in 2005, shortly after another man busted his disguise.
His life of deceit started at Ndhamathuli Secondary School in Silobela in early 2004 when some teachers at the rural institution fraudulently acquired a birth certificate belonging to Samukeliso Sithole, a Form Four pupil at his school, for him to use at competitions.
The scandal left the National Association of Zimbabwe Athletes with an egg on their face as “she” was touted to be one of the young talents to emerge from the country.
