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Ellina Mhlanga
Senior Sports Reporter
YOUTH, Sports, Arts and Recreation Minister, Kirsty Coventry, yesterday announced the proposed Sports Council structure.
This followed approval of their request, last year, to repeal and amend the Sports and Recreation Commission Act.
This is the first stage of revamping the sports regulatory body.
The new structure will see national sports associations sitting on the board.
The Minister said it will be made up of 15 members, seven of them will be the Minister’s appointees, and the other eight will come from national associations.
The new structure will include the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee president, as the first vice chairperson and the Zimbabwe National Paralympic Committee president, as second vice chairperson.
The Minister will appoint the chairperson of the Sports Council.
The board members will include Special Olympics president while non-Olympic sport, and an athletes’ representative, will also have a seat on the new board.
“As of last year, we had requested as a Ministry, it was approved by the Cabinet to repeal and amend the SRC Act,’’ she said.
“It is long overdue and, along with that, came the opportunity to really look at the structure of the SRC Commission.
“With numerous different conversations, that we have had in-house, that we had with the existing SRC Commission, as well as looking at best practices regionally, continentally and internationally, on how national sports associations, Ministries and other bodies all work together, we have come up with this new proposed structure for the Zimbabwe Sports Council.
“With that being said, we can only formalise the structure once the draft and the amendments are made and, obviously, approved and consultations are done.
“And, it goes through to the Members of Parliament and they do their consultations.’’
Coventry said the leader will always be a ministerial appointment.
“The chairperson will always be appointed by the Minister, the first vice chairperson will be the ZOC president, second vice-chairperson will be the Zimbabwe National Paralympic Committee president,’’ she said.
“The actual board and its members will be made up of a seat for the Special Olympics’ president, six Ministers’ appointments, and five appointments, from the National Associations themselves.
“One of those five must come from a non-Olympic Sport, and one of those must be an athletes representative.
“Now, this makes the new Zimbabwe Sports Council, a total of 15, seven appointments by the Minister and eight appointments by the national associations.
“This is the first for Zimbabwe as it now empowers the national associations to be leading in governing themselves.’’
The Ministry of Sport engaged national associations, through virtual meetings on Wednesday and yesterday, to share with them the new proposal for the Sports Council.
Coventry said they have received positive feedback and they will be sharing the document with the national associations for further input.
“So, next step is this document being shared with national associations,’’she said.
“They will have about a week, to give us any other written feedback, or ask questions that they might have.
“We will then compile that, through SRC, and through the acting director-general.
“We will then, once we have that, sit down together, as a Ministry and SRC board, to go through the different proposals that might come from sports associations or ideas.’’
The Minister said the process will take some time.
But, from the discussions they have had, with national associations, and advise from their legal advisor, as well as from the Attorney General’s office and SRC legal advisor, they can look at the proposed structure, while the draft and amendments, go through all the necessary procedures.
Coventry said the trial can run for the next six, to eight months.
“We all know that, in a trial, some things might work, some things might not work,’’ she said.
“But, that’s exactly why we have the time on our hands, right now, to trial this, to see how it would work.
“If there are things, that need to be changed, we could still make those changes.
“But, as I said, we have had very good feedback, so far, from the national associations.’’
The Council is expected to unify the sporting fraternity for the benefit of the industry and athletes.
“What we would expect to see, from the Sports Council, is a more unified Zimbabwe sport,’’ she said.
“I would like to see people coming together, working for the betterment of sport.
“We believe that this proposed structure, as it is right now, is also a very good realistic overview of our country, with every single person represented in this structure.’’
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