SO the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) has decided to raise its voice over the Zimbabwe national cricket team’s tour of Pakistan?
Where have they been all along when sport, in general, was suffering from all sorts of financial pressures to such an extent that they had to rely on individuals, prophets included, for bailouts?
In March this year, Member of Parliament Oliver Mandipaka, then acting chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Sports, Arts and Culture, recommended that the SRC should be disbanded and replaced with a more professional organisation. He could not have said it better.
The Asiagate football match-fixing scandal took place right under the noses of the SRC when the Warriors made 15 unsanctioned trips for betting purposes there.
The SRC instigated the investigation into this matter but when the accused persons started suing Zifa, the SRC withdrew into a comfort zone leaving the national association at the mercy of people who sold the country for 30 pieces of silver.
They never said a word. Instead, behind closed doors, they seemed to support these criminals to such an extent that they did not, even at one stage, intervene to advise Fifa that they were the ones behind the investigation.
Now that the Zimbabwe national cricket team has travelled to Pakistan for just a single tour, the SRC wants action on Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC). No, that’s wrong.
Yes, there are serious safety issues, but the SRC is wrong, very wrong in that they set the wrong precedent during Asiagate. ZC is in a serious financial quagmire, running debts of up to $20 million and Zifa up to $5 million and both organisations have lost property in recent months and days with the SRC stunningly quiet.
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The SRC waits to claim levies, weekly from the struggling Premier Soccer League clubs which they do not invest back into sport or even assist any national team, football or any other sport, when it has financial problems.
Swaziland were here over the weekend for the Under-23 Championships qualifier against the Young Warriors and the SRC duly got their 6% levy. For what? Can they tell us?
The Young Warriors and Mighty Warriors have had to depend on Prophetic Healing and Deliverance (PHD) Ministries founder Walter Magaya to get funds for transport and allowances and all the SRC can do is wait to claim levies on home matches.
The Mighty Warriors travelled to Zambia for an Olympic qualifier courtesy of Prophet Magaya last Friday.
Highlanders bought a bus in South Africa for sporting purposes but had to pay through their noses, thanks to one Tshinga Dube, to clear it at the border as the SRC failed to assist the club to get a duty-free clearance certificate from the Ministry of Home Affairs.
What then is the SRC’s role when they can’t fund, administer or even assist with a simple certificate? What a shame! The Warriors team that bombed out of the Cosafa Cup on Thursday also got the money from PHD with the SRC all zipped up. Perhaps, the SRC could learn something from the Sport and Recreation South Africa website: “Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA) is the national government department responsible for sport in South Africa.
Aligned with its vision of creating an active and winning nation, its primary focuses are providing opportunities for all South Africans to participate in sport; managing the regulatory framework thereof, and providing funding for different codes of sport.”
