adminLovemore Zigara Midlands Correspondent
SPORT and Recreation Minister Makhosini Hlongwane says his ministry will soon put in place a dispute resolution mechanism to deal with conflict resolutions in sport.
Speaking at the burial of former Warriors’ defender Paul Gundani in Kwekwe on Saturday, Hlongwane said consultations with the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare were at an advanced stage to set up such a dispute resolution tribunal.
“We’ve introduced as an integral part of our structure at the Ministry — a sports dispute resolution mechanism integrated into the Ministry of Sports and Recreation and we have had discussions with the Ministry of Labour on how to deal with those kind of issues when there are disputes within the sports fraternity,” said Hlongwane.
“There must be a very clear policy on how these matters must be addressed. If we’ve that facility in place, it enables us to deal very quickly with petty issues that sometimes come out of the sporting fraternity. This, therefore, covers the time that’ll be lost within the judicial system.”
He said the ministry is also formulating a Sports Economy concept that will deal with structural reforms to ensure the country’s sportsmen and women are remunerated accordingly.
“As a ministry, we’ve developed a focal area, which we describe as economy of sport. We recognise that if we look at the entirety of the sports movement, we can employ close to a million people in this country, but what is the quality of that employment?
“Therefore, we consider sport as a source of employment and I want to say to you that once we’re done with the concept note on this focal area on the economy of sport, we’re going to be implementing deep structural reforms to make sure our athletes are not taken advantage of at various levels of interaction with their stakeholders,” Hlongwane said.
FifPro board member for Africa Region Thulaganyo Gaoshubelwe called on the government to introduce a raft of reforms in local football.
“I hope the people who are going to come into Zifa are going to be progressive people who will introduce reforms and this is where the Ministry of Sport comes in. When you speak of reforms in football Minister, at some point we need to force some of these structures,” said Gaoshubelwe.
“Let them not hide behind a clause in Fifa that we cannot allow government to intervene in the game that needs to be played. We can’t use that because it suits us to suppress players; it suits us because the players will not be able to speak on the need to have a pension fund,” he said.
Gaoshubelwe is also the secretary-general of the South Africa Football Players’ Union.
In 2005, a Commercial Arbitration Centre produced a blueprint for the establishment of the Zimbabwe Sports Arbitration Tribunal, which saw the training of 30 arbitrators. However, the project seems to have suffered a still birth.
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