CASTLE Lager Premier Soccer League club Harare City are facing extinction, as it emerged yesterday that Harare City Council, which owns the team, has decided to withdraw funding to all its sports activities starting 2019.
BY XOLISANI NCUBE
This is contained in council minutes, with further proposals to cut down the budget for all sports activities by 40% next year.
Besides the men’s football team, Harare City have vibrant women’s football, basketball and netball teams.
Councillors shot down a proposal from finance director, Tendai Kwenda, who had suggested that the local authority, which is accused of failing on service delivery, reduce its current funding to the team.
“The finance director further reported that while the City of Harare has an obligation to sustain sporting activities as part of its social development, it has, however, become imperative that the City of Harare reviews its budget for sports arising from the public dissent so as to maintain a balance between sport and service delivery,” the minutes read.
“He further reported that council would cease sponsoring sporting activities commencing in 2019 and, therefore, sporting administrators were also encouraged to embark on an aggressive sponsorship drive between now and the 2019 sporting season, as well as provide up-to-date audited financial statements to council.”
The management had pushed that funding be reduced immediately, but councillors turned down the proposal, arguing it was impossible, as most of the leagues were halfway through and the money had already been spent in some cases.
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“For reasons stated in the preamble, the recommendations in the finance director’s report to review downwards the City of Harare sports budget for the year 2017 be not acceded to,” the councillors stated.
Harare City Football Club, popularly known as Sunshine Boys, are being funded annually to the tune of $2 million, but with these recommendations, it would be cut to $1,2 million next year.
Harare mayor, Bernard Manyenyeni is pushing for a further reduction.
“The finance director had also underscored the need for all sporting administrators to consequently align their spending for the remaining fixtures in line with the revised budgets, respectively,” minutes from the finance committee, which were also turned down by councillors, read.
The councillors said it would be averse for the local authority to immediately cut the budget and, instead, tasked acting town clerk, Josephine Ncube to look for alternative funding from next year.
“As a way forward, the committee tasked the acting town clerk to ensure effective sporting dissemination to all ratepayers and stakeholders. The administrators of the various sporting disciplines were also urged to undertake effective marketing initiatives of their clubs and secure partnerships with various sponsors so as to reduce the funding,” the minutes read.
A proposal by the finance director stated that besides the senior football team, the women team would also see their budget reduced from $500 000 to $300 000, with that of the junior team (Division 1) cut from $475 000 to $285 000.
The basketball team, had the proposal sailed through, would have seen their budget cut from $863 330 to $517 998.
