BY ENOCK MUCHINJO
HARARE – Aaron Jani wasn’t the least bit bothered about his teammates being the more vocal ones, or stealing the limelight, while he just let his electrifying pace and dancing feet do the talking for him on the rugby field.
Very little changed years later when Jani ventured into the administrative side of things, preferring – for the most part – to let his actions speak louder than words.
For the former Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU) president and ex-national team player, who died in Harare on Wednesday at the age of 54 following a long battle with colon cancer, this approach to life was what endeared him to a great many people he interacted with in his lifetime. Quite a lot of them extrovert by nature, the opposite of Jani.
That contrast and diversity of personality was the biggest attraction. It created mutual understanding and a strong bond between Jani and his closest friends as one of them, Godwin ‘Jaws’ Murambiwa, attests.
“AJ was a gentleman, a wonderful human being…better than most of us,” says Murambiwa.
In his pomp, Jani was also a better player than most of his peers – a smiling assassin on the field who at first glance looked harmless among brawny opponents and teammates alike. Yet he was a very fast wing with a sharp eye for the gap, also incredibly able to perform covering tackles in his defensive duties.
A successful entrepreneur away from rugby, Jani passed on just weeks shy of his 55th birthday on 10 March. Born in Chinhoyi near the capital city Harare, Jani’s sporting abilities became more evident when the family moved to Bulawayo, initially settling in Mzilikazi, a vibrant hub of black township life in white-governed Rhodesia.
For primary school he started off in the townships before transferring to Baines Junior in the more affluent parts of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city. The rugby-mad government school, Milton High School, was his next destination in the early 80s. The rugby bug quickly caught. Four years of eye-catching performances for Milton teams as a speedy and free-scoring wing hugely impressed Bulawayo’s top private school, Christian Brothers College, whose sports scholarship offer was a life-changing opportunity for Jani.
Bulawayo’s best rugby club, Old Miltonians, had a long and proud tradition of recruiting the finest schoolboy talent in and around the city. You went through the stages – 3rd XV, 2nd XV, all the way to the first team.
“It was an honour and privilege to play alongside Aaron, he was one of those players that just wanted to do well,” Brendan Dawson, a senior player in the side when Jani first joined Old Miltonians, recollects.
“He was one of those players that joined OMs as a youngster full of energy, determination and a lot of ambition – a lot of self-belief and a lot of confidence. And there was never ever one bit of arrogance that went with that, just a humble person. And he’s being that humble person all his life until the day he died. He wanted to make us all proud, he was just an amazing team man, and I think he took that out into the business world. That’s why he was a successful businessman, and a man so loved by everybody. He also put that into his children and his beautiful wife.”
The main picture accompanying this tribute shows Jani with a powerful Old Miltonians side of the late 1990s, winners of the first National Club Championship. The backbone of Zimbabwe’s national team those days was formed by this exceptional group of players from the once mighty club of Bulawayo.
To appreciate the all-round brilliance of that Old Miltonians side, take a look at it in the broader context of Zimbabwean domestic rugby those days. Old MIltonians’ city rivals, Matabeleland Busters, were no slouch either in the National League – clubs matched strength-for-strength across the country. Old Hararians, Harare Sports Club and Old Georgians in the capital city were also bursting with amazing talent while the likes of Mashonaland Country Districts and Gweru Sports Club were also in their element. It was a game at its healthiest.
Behind this purple patch on the domestic front was the outstanding organisational skills of the astute administrators of the time, something that allowed the players’ talent to fully blossom under a conducive environment. The ultimate goal was a strong desire for a quick return to the World Cup. Rank outsiders Côte d’Ivoire had surprised even themselves to qualify for the 1995 World Cup courtesy of Africa’s single qualification ticket, ending the reign of Zimbabwe, who had been the continent’s only team at the first two World Cup editions in 1987 and 1991.
To treat the Ivorians’ qualification as just a temporary interruption was probably an arrogant assumption by Zimbabwe, who seemed pretty cocksure of reclaiming their rightful place at the top table come the 1999 World Cup in Wales. Forget Côte d’Ivoire, what didn’t occur to the Zimbabweans was that there was a new looming threat in the form of Namibia, who instead qualified for that 1999 World Cup to deny flying Aaron Jani & Co.
It has become routine for Namibia to go to the World Cup every four years, to this present time. As for Zimbabwe, a dozen ZRU presidents have taken charge since 1999 before Jani. To their credit they all, to a man, worked their socks off in a bid to take their country back to the game’s biggest stage.
Few more so, though, with the considerable ingenuity of Jani.
Jani had always envisioned himself as a leader of the game in his country, the saviour that ZimRugby desperately needed. But even as he was a distinguished former player and a man of means, he didn’t suddenly plunge into the race to become ZRU president. For him, it wasn’t just about occupying an important-looking office for the sake of it.
It was about preparing himself well for the role, and to do that he needed to start from the base.
For close to a decade from 2006 he was happy to serve in the non-glamorous role of chairman of Zimbabwe’s Under-20 rugby committee, one of the ZRU’s welfare sub-committees that help ease financial pressure on the association. While it is the players and the coaches that look good when things are flowing in the right direction, for these committees it is a largely thankless task that comes with significant personal and financial sacrifice.
But for Jani it opened a window to see the pool of talent and identify future Sables, as well as noting areas in the game that needed to be fixed when he eventually took the helm at ZRU.
Under Jani’s guidance, Zimbabwe produced one of its best Under-20 sides in modern years, teams that competed favourably with some of the world’s second tier rugby-paying nations.
“Too many games, too many tours,” Murambiwa, the Young Sables’ head coach during that period, remembers. “It was always about leaving the game in a better place.”
Countless players from that era graduated into the senior Sables, with varying success. Three of them – Tichafara Makwanya, Andy Rose and Graeme Lawler – were part of the Zimbabwe side that in 2014 came the closest to qualify for the World Cup since the Sables’ first tumble in 1999. In his first spell as Zimbabwe’s head coach, ex-national team captain Dawson took an exceptionally gifted group players to the qualification competition in Madagascar. Zimbabwe’s workmanlike 28-10 win over Kenya in their last game of the qualifiers was however without the bonus point required to seal a World Cup berth in England in 2015, a cruel blow for an exciting generation of Sables.
All the while, Jani was orienting himself to life in charge of Zimbabwean rugby and in 2016 he decided that the time was right. It got off to a false start, losing to Nyararai Sibanda in the election to succeed John Falkenberg as ZRU president.
As it happened, 15 months later Sibanda and his entire executive were fired by the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) – Zimbabwe’s sports regulatory body – over allegations of misconduct.
Jani took full advantage of fortuity. He was installed new ZRU president in an uncontested election in December 2017, ushering in a new era for Zimbabwean rugby in the modern era of the sport.
The World Cup had always been uppermost in Jani’s mind since his generation failed to go there as players in 1999, so his short-term goal was qualifying for the 2019 tournament in Japan.
For that reason, Jani was prepared to break the bank and go to any lengths. A huge advantage came in the form of strong backing from a well-resourced Sables Trust led by top lawyer Gerald Mlotshwa, an ex-CBC schoolmate of the new ZRU boss.
Just months into office, Jani and his executive made a huge statement of intent towards the World Cup endavour. On the morning of 8 February 2018, reporters from both local and foreign press packed a conference room of the five-star Meikles Hotel in Harare, awaiting a big announcement. It was a grand occasion never seen before in the history Zimbabwean rugby.
South African Peter de Villiers, the former coach of world power Springboks, was being unveiled as Zimbabwe’s new coach. De Villiers didn’t come cheap, bagging an attractive remuneration package befitting his lofty status.
Smartly dressed in Zimbabwe’s green blazer and tie, matching Jani and his executive, De Villiers smiled widely all morning and said the appointment was the “greatest day of my life.”
Peter de Villiers (middle) addresses media at Meikles Hotel in Harare in February 2018, flanked by Brendan Dawson (left) and Aaron Jani.
It was a big decision by the Jani leadership, perhaps the first big mistake.
De Villiers’ assistant coach was Dawson, who accepted to return to the fold as number two after an earlier six-year stint as the boss.
In this whole arrangement, the ZRU gave De Villiers complete freedom in team selection and tactics, an ill-advised move in view of the South African’s lack of local knowledge.
And it was clear from the outset that De Villiers himself hadn’t come to Zimbabwe to be told what to do by anybody.
With the technical involvement of Dawson – a big character in his country’s rugby circles – it came as little surprise when cracks soon began to emerge within the team.
A clash of egos ensued, with the De Villiers camp accusing Dawson of undermining the head coach’s authority, and those on Dawson’s side counter-accusing De Villiers of a condescending attitude towards the Zimbabwe job.
The casualty of that dressing-room fallout was Dawson. To save face, the ZRU reluctantly removed Dawson from his position as the assistant coach, at De Villiers’ behest.
Amidst the chaos, the Sables’ young and energetic team manager Kisset Chirengende, who is a top-notch professional, quietly resigned to protect his reputation.
Zimbabwe’s disappointing 23-23 draw with Morocco at home in June 2018 to begin the 2019 World Cup qualifiers painted a pretty grim picture of what was to follow.
The descent into mayhem was completed by defeats to Namibia, Kenya and Tunisia in a miserable campaign that left the Sables flirting with relegation. An away 58-28 win over Uganda in Kampala on the last weekend of qualifiers saved the Sables from demotion to Africa’s second division.
With the coach and the federation’s working relationship having hit rock bottom, on top of the poor results, there was no doubting that De Villiers was living on borrowed time.
Trouble started when De Villiers didn’t return to Zimbabwe on time to begin the second phase of his two-year tenure. It later turned out that the Capetonian had made a request for a compassionate leave, which wasn’t approved.
In April 2019, rumour swirled around that ZRU had sacked De Villiers.
Though ever media-friendly and accommodative of reporters, Jani was a shrewd administrator who wouldn’t give out information impulsively or speak without careful thought. Given the sensitiveness of the matter and profile of the man involved, De Villiers’ unceremonious exit was a development Jani preferred to go unnoticed without further drama. Jani wished that with time, the whole episode would just fizzle out.
But such stories are hard to keep under wraps and after much persistence, Jani agreed to release the dismissal letter to me. The exclusive story I wrote for international news agency Associated Press on 28 May 2019, under the headline “Former Springboks coach de Villiers fired by Zimbabwe”, was picked up by prominent global media outlets just like his momentous appointment 16 months earlier.
With De Villiers out of the way, who was back as Sables gaffer? The ZRU president’s old friend and ex-teammate Dawson.
“He and I played so well together, and we worked so well together when he was the president and I was the head coach,” remarks Dawson.
“It was an honour to work under him. Aaron worked so hard, so tirelessly to try and make Zimbabwean rugby professional. His passing is a hard one, and a hard pill to swallow. It’s just so sad, and you know, what he did with the Under-20s was so unmeasurable, what he did with the Sables senior side was also so unmeasurable, what he committed to ZimRugby was so amazing.”
Once again Zimbabwe had the chance to make amends for previous World Cup attempts, with the 2023 edition in France in mind. The African qualification competition which was staged in France in 2022 however came a bit too early for a rebuilding Sables side. Tournament winners Namibia had kept the core of their squad from the previous campaign, while losing finalists Kenya had reached their peak after years of hard-work and consistent investment into the national side.
After a 34-19 defeat to Namibia in the semi-finals, the Sables went on to lose 22-12 to Algeria in the third-place play-off.
Two failed World Cup bids under his stewardship was undoubtedly a painful one for Jani, a cause for concern. But Jani had done an outstanding job leading the remodeling of ZRU, and widening the player base for the future.
The dominance of Zimbabwe’s Under-20 team which won back-to-back youth African titles in 2022 and 2023 in Kenya will count as an achievement for Jani, all the more so because some of the gifted young players from that Young Sables group have graduated smoothly and are now key members of the senior national team currently enjoying a good run of form. Also given Jani’s passion for junior rugby, as testified to by his prior admirable work with the youngsters, the success of this new crop of Young Sables cannot be by accident.
Last year began in anticipation of an elective AGM of the ZRU, which was due in five months’ time. News broke out that one of Jani’s two deputies, Losson Mtongwiza, had decided to stand on his his own and run for the ZRU presidency.
With Mtongwiza confirming his candidature around March, the question remained as to whether Jani would seek another term. In typical fashion, Jani kept it close to his chest. Talk was however rife that Jani wasn’t contesting, which sounded plausible considering two unfruitful World Cup bids, and declining health.
But like a real warrior, Jani felt there was still some fight left in him, announcing on the last minute that he still had unfinished business with ZimRugby so was running for a third term.
Such willpower, even in the face of an illness that was taking heavy toll on him, was a display of the kind of courage well known to people like Dawson.
“He fought it, many, many times…it’s got to be 10 years, I’m sure, that he fought this disease,” comments Dawson. “And he knocked it down, came back, knocked it down, came back. One minute he was in hospital, two days later he was running, he was back in the gym. He just fought it, he never wanted it to beat him. That is the kind of person he’s always been and that’s why he was so successful and so liked and so loved.”
Jani’s determination to stay on perhaps stemmed from a standpoint that after seven years in control, the experience gained from the successes and failures stood him in good stead to finally reap rewards.
A very promising young national team coach, Piet Benade, as well as an expertly-assembled new Sables Trust chaired by Lindsay Earle, had been appointed two months before the elective AGM to hopefully usher in a new lease of life in a third term for Jani.
37-year-old Gerald Sibanda, a former Zimbabwe player as recent as 2016, alongside ex-Zimbabwe Sevens coach Gilbert Nyamutsamba, joined Jani and Mtongwiza in gunning for the ZRU presidency on 25 May 2024.
True to his warrior spirit, Jani ran a good race in second place, narrowly losing to Mtongwiza by just one vote.
Under the new president Mtongwiza, Zimbabwe romped to the Africa Cup title in Uganda last July. Benade’s men went on to finish the year with a 100 percent win record in five Tests after defeating the United Arab Emirates and South Korea on an end-of-year tour of the Middle East and Asia. The Sables are riding a wave at the moment and they’ll return to Uganda this year for Africa’s final 2027 World Cup qualification tournament as one of the red-hot favourites.
It has been a flying start for the Mtongwiza administration, but Murambiwa also gives Jani an enormous amount of credit for the foundation laid.
“He (Jani) was a visionary,” says Murambiwa. “He rejuvenated junior rugby to a dominant force between 2006 and 2012. He’s responsible for the current turnaround in the Sables.”
Jani remained treasurer of the continental body, Rugby Africa, until his death on Wednesday. Heartfelt tributes have poured in from far and wide following the passing of the beloved industrialist and sports administrator, who will be buried in his rural home in Zvimba on Sunday.
