Rugby National Team Player Passes on
Calistus Kolantsho | Monday February 1, 2021 15:05
Dithupa passed on Friday morning in Zimbabwe, where she was residing. Sport Monitor has been informed that the player committed suicide and was buried on Saturday.
At club level, Dithupa was played for Canon Jaguars. The club chairperson, Feddy Mutenheri said Dithupa’s death is huge loss to rugby. He said the player was the core of women’s rugby in the country.
“Rugby is in crisis of people taking their lives. About two years ago we lost Botswana Rugby Union (BRU) secretary general, Ernest Mantsi due to suicide. We really need to sit down as rugby and take stock of ourselves.
It is important to understand depression and workshop our players and administrators about it. I want to understand why people take their lives,” he said. Mutenheri said counselling is one sector that should be included in rugby.
The 25 year old Dithupa played for Botho Riders in 2013 until 2016. She joined Jaguars in 2017 until her passing.
She made her national team (15s) debut in 2013 when she was doing Form Five at Moeding College.
She made 7s national team debut in 2015. National team coach, Tiger Masinki said he met Dithupa when she was playing for Moeding. He said Dithupa was a strong hard running player. “By then she was a bit low on the skill side, especially handling. Her first appearance was with senior national 15s team with coach, Munya Mhonda to Namibia.
She was still 17 at the time. So young as she was, she was a bit experienced because she started playing high level when she was still young. I had the privilege of working with her for the first time in 2016,” he said. Masinki said during that time, Botswana played Zimbabwe home and away, winning home and losing away. He said the following year they travelled to Potchefstroom where they beat Leopards provincial side.
Unfortunately, the deceased could not travel with the team to Tunisia in 2019 because she just had a baby then. “Dithupa was playing wing and outside center and she was an instrumental player in our endeavours.
I have literally seen her develop in her rugby and becoming a very good player that she was. I have to say, she hated losing and she used to worry a lot about her position in the national team because her weakness was passing to the left,” he said. Masinki was they worked hard with her and she got better on it which in a way demonstrated her commitment to becoming a better player.
“I mean typically, players never want to disclose their weaknesses as it jeopardizes their selection.
She was a very passionate person. So we have lost a very good player and mostly a great person. What is even worse is that we cannot even go and pay our respects because it happened so suddenly and COVID-19 restrictions,”Masinki said.