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Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
THE recent death of a Mutare Pool League (MPL) treasurer opened a can of worms, amid stunning revelations that the popular league is running without a basic sports club or league administration requirement such as a bank account.
In recent years, MPL has earned the attention and admiration of many because of its vibrancy.
Enthusiasts of the game of pool, also known as snooker, have 24 clubs from all corners of Mutare, including peri-urban communities such as Chigodora, who partake in an exciting and widely followed yearly league season competition.
In fact, the game of pool, just like the English Premiership Football League, is earning more attention than most local sporting activities, not only in Mutare, but countrywide.
The MPL resumed last weekend after a break that was meant to mourn their treasurer, Givemore Madiro who died a fortnight ago, and was laid to rest at his Kariba home.
Incidentally, his death left more questions than answers in relation to accountability and professional handling of public funds by the provincial snooker governing body, given that it emerged the MPL has no bank account at all.
Madiro would collect funds for club subscriptions, player registration and all other monetary payments from clubs in the league and the funds would be kept in a place the now deceased only knows.
Asked on the challenges that MPL was facing all along for them not to have a basic requirement such as a bank account, MPL chairman, Peter Mkwananzi, said: “It had to do with the issue of tax clearance and bank charges since the money was little due to the Covid-19 era we are coming from. We were in the process of doing that. If our clubs had paid up their affiliation fees in full, we would have done that already.
“Well have already filled the forms and we are talking to ZIMRA so that we can have tax clearance. Please note that the minutes recorded before me, when I was vice chairman, we had agreed to delay opening an account due to previous experiences, but as of now, we working on the opening off the account.”
As MPL is huffing and puffing on its way to opening a bank account, clubs are bitterly complaining about how the funds that had already been paid will be accounted for, given that even those who had paid nothing are likely to say they paid their dues.
However, the MPL chairman, was quick to allay any fears of misrepresentation of numbers.
“We are working on that. The secretary-general is compiling everything. Unfortunately, on Sunday when we wanted to meet the family of the deceased treasurer, we failed.
“We hope by end of the week we will be having full details with regards to who paid what and where the money is. It is also fortunate that the secretary general was doing the collection of the subscriptions. Most clubs paid half and others have not paid their affiliation fees, and most clubs have not paid for IDs and player registration,” Mkwananzi said.
Sport Development for Manicaland chief executive, Josiah Borerwe, bemoaned the fact that many sports associations are not following their own constitutions.
“It is sad that we have many of these sports associations running without basic requirements, in this case a bank account. This is all because people are appointed or elected to positions of sports management, only because of their passion for that particular sport, and yet they do not have basic knowledge on how to professionally run the particular game.
“Basic sports administration courses are important and they give knowledge on how to professionally run these sports. A bank count is one of the basic things a professionally run club or league should have. Money is deposited in the bank within 24 hours of receipt. This is done for accountability. It is not about how much money is there. Even $100 should be accounted for.
“We will soon engage Zimbabwe Olympic Committee (ZOC) so that we get help in having most of our sports administrators here in Manicaland equipped with basic sports management knowledge,” said Borerwe.
Mutare Pool League action continues this weekend with a number of matches lined up across the venues dotted around the city.
Online Reporter