Leticia Chipandu Suspended: And Just Like That, the Party Started The weekend started early for some of us the moment news broke that the Sports and Recreation Commission had finally suspended Leticia Chipandu, the self-declared “lifetime president” of the Zimbabwe Netball Association. Let me tell you, when that message hit my phone early Friday morning, I didn’t need coffee. I needed music, a speaker, and a bottle. The group chats exploded. Promises of whiskey flowed faster than the actual whiskey which, as usual, never showed up. But it didn’t matter. The vibe was already electric. We were halfway into celebration mode before the press release had even cooled. Chipandu’s fall isn’t just about one woman losing her grip on power it’s about a whole sport being able to breathe again. Netball in Zimbabwe has suffered under her watch: stagnated, politicized, and run like a personal fiefdom. For years, she ruled with an iron fist, clung to power like it was oxygen, and silenced anyone who dared question her including journalists just doing their jobs. If the ancestors could celebrate, I swear the late, great Pauline Jani was somewhere raising a glass. Maybe even pouring a shot in the sky for the Gaffa. That’s how big this is. But don’t get it twisted this is just step one. The entire ZINA board needs to go. All of them. Clean slate. A full ban. You can’t prune a rotten tree you cut it down. And while Zimbabwe rejoices, there’s still the elephant in the room: will Africa Netball grow a spine and remove her from COSANA too? Or are we about to watch the same horror show play out on a regional stage? One thing’s clear the game is bigger than one woman. And netball, finally, has a shot at healing. Cheers to that.