Sugar Chagonda

Wife

Chagonda is married to Fortunate Mapfumo. In June 2021, Chagonda took Mapfumo to court accusing her of unreasonable disposal of household effects which falls under the Domestic Violence Act. He accused her of depriving him access to his cell phones.

The court told the State that the allegations were not supporting the charge and the State was prompted to withdraw charges against her before plea. The State told the court that they would summon Mapfumo when they decide to try her on theft charges after getting authority to prosecute from the Prosecutor General.^[2]

Education

He attended Chipembere Primary School before going to Gutu High for his secondary education and later Mutendi High School in Masvingo for his ‘A’ Levels. Chagonda excelled in all the sporting disciplines he was introduced to while at school.

Sugar Chagonda holds a Masters Degree in Public Policy and Governance from Africa University (AU). In 2018, he was reading for a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) with Binary University of Malaysia in collaboration with Chinhoyi University of Technology. He also holds numerous local and international diplomas in the fields of communication, journalism, public relations and diplomacy.^[3]

Career

Football

Chagonda was a midfielder for Eastern Region Division 2 outfit Nyika United between 1994 and 1995. With his father’s advice not to abandon education for football, he focused on his academics and business career.^[1]

Journalism & Public Relations

Chagonda made a name as a newscaster at ZBC and later in the public relations domain.

In January 2018, Chagonda left his Zimbabwe Tourism Authority post as Head of Corporate Affairs to assume a new role with the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC). With effect from January 1, 2018, Chagonda joined ZCDC as Public Relations and Community Development Manager.^[3]

Football

Sugar Chagonda is the former secretary-general of Manica Diamond Football Club.^[1]

In 2018, Chagonda automatically became the candidate for the Eastern Region in the ZIFA national committee elections after he emerged as the only candidate with a link to the region following a vetting exercise by the Electoral Committee.^[4]

On December 1, 2018, Chagonda was elected as a ZIFA board member. On 16 November 2021, the ZIFA board was suspended by the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC). The SRC accused the ZIFA Board of gross incompetence in the governance and management of football in Zimbabwe. Among other things, the SRC accused the ZIFA Board of failure to account fully for the use of public funds in the aftermath of the 2019 AFCON campaign as well as the latter’s failure to probe alleged sexual harassment of female referees by key technical staff within ZIFA.^[5]

Controversies

Affair With Chipo Bizure

Sugar Chagonda reportedly had an affair with former Studio 263 actress Chipo Bizure. The matter came to light after Bizure appeared in court accused of disorderly conduct and malicious damage to property.

On June 8 2021 at around 2am, Bizure went to Fortunate Mapfumo's place of residence in Avonlea and started to ring the intercom demanding to see Chagonda. After being told that she must return in the morning, Bizure started blowing her car horn and banging the gate and when she discovered that the gate was not locked, she went inside and destroyed two bar stools that were on the veranda.

Upon hearing the noise, Mapfumo and her son went out and Bizure ran outside and locked herself in the car and was hooting at the gate till 5:30 am.

Bizure changed her plea and said she only hooted once and broke the barstools by mistake not intentionally as alleged by the State and is willing to compensate Mapfumo. The court heard that at around 6:30am when Mapfumo was about to go to work she saw Bizure parked at the gate blocking the way and she refused to remove her car saying one of the tyres had been deflated by Mapfumo’s gardener which prompted her to call the police leading to Bizure’s arrest.^[2]

References