SRC to restructure

THE Sports Commission say they are in the process of restructuring the regulatory authority and repealing the old SRC Act in a move meant to ensure more efficiency, inclusivity and compliance by national sports associations.

Speaking during a meet-the-media brief function in Harare yesterday, the Sports Commission chairman Gerald Mlotshwa, who was flanked by board members Karen Mutasa, Colleen de Jong, Nigel Munyati, Allen Chiura and Titus Zvomuya, said they hope to have completed the exercise by June next year.

The Sports Commission derives its mandate from the Sports and Recreation Commission Act and reports to the parent Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation.

The Sports Commission was created by an Act of Parliament Chapter 25:15 of 1991.

Part of the mandate of the Sports Commission is to facilitate the accessibility of sport and recreation programmes to the people of Zimbabwe and to oversee the general running of sport and recreation programmes by the national sports associations.

However, through a raft of proposals, which are not coming from the board but from the associations as well, part of the suggestions is that amendments should fully embrace the national sporting associations' activities, in turn making them effectively comply with the statutory requirements.

This development will also address the elephant in the room, which has seen some associations rush to international federations for protection when they find themselves in breach of their own statutes.

One of the proposals is to have a quota of the board members come directly from national associations, appointed by the sports associations themselves, in a move that would see the associations keep each other in check regularly.

"In so far as restructuring is concerned, any restructuring finance is required. We know the condition of the national fiscus and the availability and non-availability of those funds, so that's for the parent ministry to deal with.

"What we have control over is the regulatory processes, that is to say the amendment or rather the repeal of the SRC Act itself, the restructuring of the organisation as we see from the organogram perspective, we have control over those things.

"We have control over, for example, institutions such as the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee, Paralympics Committee, Special Olympics and etcetera. But the idea really, we will start with legislative restructuring and everything else in terms of human resources and other materials required to give effect to that restructuring that is more likely to happen perhaps I am seeing 30th June or so of next year but that's second aspect will be driven by the availability of resources," said Mlotshwa.

Chiura added that the restructuring will realign sport and will be effective in ensuring better compliance from the national associations, which have often run into problems with the regulator by being not compliant.

"The restructuring exercise is actually an incredibly important exercise because that is going to realign sport in this country.

"If you recall, the SRC was temporary when it was placed, it was never going to be a permanent structure, and so what we are doing now is to create a permanent structure that will actually manage sport," he said.

In the engagement, the first of its kind between the media and the Sports Commission board, a number of issues were deliberated on.

The meeting also addressed the current fallout between ZIFA and the Sports Commission, the resumption of sport, particularly domestic top-flight football which failed to resume under the suggested a bio-bubble.

Mlotshwa, who maintained that they are not there to fight ZIFA but to ensure every association adheres to corporate governance and laws of the land, also urged the media to always hold associations accountable and not only wait to report after the regulator is ready to crack the whip on the errant associations.