THE Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Andrew Langa has threatened to dissolve the Sports and Recreation Commission board for failing to discharge its mandate.
NewsDay Editorial
The SRC is the supreme decision-making body in the country. The SRC were the main instigators of the Asiagate match-fixing investigations which saw officials and players banned for throwing football matches. The SRC was established by an Act of Parliament and falls under the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture.
Given the fact that sport in the country is growing, there may be no need for the SRC anymore. In fact, after last Thursday’s failure by eight of the nine board members to attend the football indaba at Zifa Village, it became apparent that the SRC board no longer has a reason to remain in office.
The SRC demonstrated their own incapacities, and such personalities cannot be entrusted with growing sport in the country at the least.
Langa must go ahead and appoint a new SRC board, but must ensure that the new board will play their oversight role across all sporting disciplines so that the country benefits.
Sports administration in this country needs reinvigoration, [but] not necessarily by the politically-connected who have ruined the dreams and aspirations of many children who love sports.
In other countries, sports play a huge part in the economy as a major source of income for thousands, if not millions, of sports personalities. In fact, sport has become an employer of choice in many growing economies. Zimbabwe has potential and the starting point could be a solid SRC board that is constituted along professional lines rather than patronage.
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Clearly, sport has changed in the world. It is also no longer considered a pastime; it is more of an industry, hence it also needs technocrats who understand the benefits that can accrue to the nation.
But if incapable people are in charge of administering sport, this benefit will never be realised, hence the need to consider appointing individuals with a passion for sports. For example, the 2010 World Cup in South Africa realised ZAR55,7 billion into the economy in addition to 400 000 jobs.
In the United States, sport alone contributed 465 000 jobs in 2013 with an average salary of $39 000 per job. The sports industry as a whole brings roughly $14,3 billion in earnings a year.
Regrettably, all the basics that Zimbabwe currently has are wrong. The country always has unending false starts and to citizens, one of the false starts is having the SRC overseeing national associations when it cannot properly discharge its mandate yet they have all the powers to de-register non-compliant associations.
In its history, only the Amateur Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (AAAZ) was de-registered by the SRC for election irregularities by then chairman Wilfred Pawadyira more than a decade ago, but since then, sports associations have failed to comply with standing regulations because they know the SRC is toothless.
One wonders how the SRC board failed to attend an indaba they had organised. This is a serious indictment on the part of the individual board members. That they trivialised the gathering is something that has no defence, and Langa has every right to put their heads on the block.
Whether their failure to attend the meeting had anything to do with their dislike of Langa is anybody’s guess, but that kind of sabotage requires that government put the SRC in its right position. The ministry was allocated $10 million in the national budget and this is not enough.
