Chronicle Editor
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
THE proposal to amend the constitution and make the club compliant with Fifa Club Licensing and improve Bosso’s administration got a shot in the arm when Highlanders board chairman Luke Mnkandla said they will extensively look into the matter before presenting it to members.
Mnkandla acknowledged receiving a proposal to amend the constitution prior to yesterday’s annual general meeting held at the clubhouse and said they will interrogate the recommendations before presenting them to members.
He said bona-fide member Innocent Mikazhu raised valid points that the club needs to consider to plan for the future.
In his proposal, Mikazhu says the Fifa Club Licensing system enables football clubs to be run professionally, operate as a business and help improve governance.
“The member raises valid arguments that will carry the club forward, but there is a need to look at the issues raised before presenting them to members.
What I’ve realised is that members genuinely love their club and they want to see it grow, hence their involvement in raising such critical issues.
Once we’ve gone through the proposal, we’ll brief members,” said Mnkandla.
Mikazhu suggested that Article 7.3 scraps the titles of secretary, treasurer and committee member, and replace them with committee member responsible for administration and marketing, committee member responsible for finance and committee member responsible for technical development respectively.
He proposes that the committee member responsible for administration and marketing chairs the administration and marketing standing committee, oversees the welfare of club employees, oversees implementation of the club’s marketing plan in liaison with the chief executive officer and perform all such duties as delegated by the chairperson.
Club correspondence, recording of minutes, keeping of player records, which includes renewal of contracts and player registrations as spelt out by the present constitution, must be the CEO’s responsibilities.
For the committee member responsible for finance, he suggests the duties include heading the finance committee, monitoring financial management and advising the executive on financial matters and asset management.
If his proposed amendments sail through, duties of the member for finance will also include analysing the club’s budget and financial statements prepared by the CEO and submit them to the executive for approval.
The committee member responsible for technical development would oversee basic aspects of football training and technical development, chair the technical and development committee and oversee implementation of the club’s youth development programmes.
Mikazhu also proposes amending Article 9.1 on qualifications for executive committee position to read that a prospective candidate must be a member for an uninterrupted period of at least five years, instead of the present two years, to be able to stand for election.
He wants the CEO to draw up the agenda based on proposals from the executive committee and the members.
On judicial bodies, Mikazhu wants the roles of the disciplinary committee to include “dealing with cases involving discipline of members and employees of the club”.
He also wants duties of the CEO to be spelt out in the constitution.
Bosso member Melu Sibanda called for speedy interrogation of the proposal, adding that the club needs to do away with archaic ideologies.
“If you look at the points raised, they protect the club and help in terms of day-to-day operations of the club.
I for one will be happy to see these amendments going through because the last time we had a constitutional amendment was in 2006.
So much has changed and to keep up with present trends, I see no harm in attending to our constitution,” Sibanda said.
Allan Mpofu, an ex-Zifa Bulawayo Province chairman said: “The problem is that as members we tend to dwell much on trivial matters instead of looking at issues that help the club to develop and prosper.
I think we are beyond time in terms of amending our constitution and if we can pass it, this will help the club.”
– @ZililoR
Online Reporter