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Grace Chingoma-Senior Sports Reporter
FORMER Zimbabwe Olympic Committee president Robert Mutsauki has urged local national sport associations to seek long-term sponsorship partnerships.
He believes national sport associations must strive to secure lengthy investments from companies by being transparent and accountable.
The veteran administrator was recently speaking during the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe unveiling of Baldmin Holdings sponsorship.
The firm, with interests in mining and medical supplies, has committed to an annual US$50 000 package for the next five years which will cater to the triangular athletics series as well as Junior Championships.
And Mutsauki, who is also the former president of the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe, said it is high time that the national sport associations attract such packages and not only get content with ad-hoc sponsorships.
“We need to be proactive and not wait for people to offer sponsorship. It should be the other way round. But the fact that you have one company showing confidence also gives confidence to the other companies.
“What we would like to see sponsors doing is to have confidence in our sports organisations to the extent of having long-term sponsorship, like what the Baldmin Holdings director has been saying that this can go on for the next five years or more because usually you just get sponsorship for that year but nothing is said for the future.
”But if you sign a contract and it’s for three years, it would actually say that maybe a notice would be given at least one year to go if the sponsor decides otherwise with the sponsorship but that is missing, a lot of sponsorships are ad-hoc that is happening, the reason being lack of confidence but if it’s happening with Baldmin it can also happen with others and that what I think NAAZ should be aiming to have these sort of medium to long term sponsorships, not just annual sponsorships,” said Mutsauki.
However, Mutsauki pointed out that this can only be achieved if associations are transparent and protect the investment well.
“I can tell you from experience that while it is not easy to get sponsorship, it is quite difficult to retain it. There are those imperatives, and deliverables that are important for the sport.
“It is not that easy to get sponsorship but it could be even more difficult to retain it that’s where the deliverables come in.
“To retain sponsorship, it’s very important to appreciate that there are objectives whenever sponsorship is given and as long as those objectives are fulfilled but these issues of governance, accountability, transparency, good event management, and so forth, avoiding scandals, conflicts and things like those, those are the things that cause people to lose sponsorship,” he said.
Mutsauki urged NAAZ to protect their new marriage with Baldmin which began last year with the sponsorship of the Junior Championships only.
But this year the company decided to fund a series of athletics events that would be held in Harare, Bulawayo and Bindura.
Baldmin Holdings will also sponsor a 10 000m track and field event as well as the Shabanie Mine track and field championships which would be managed by the association.
“There must be the justification of sponsorship and NAAZ should not have difficulty in justifying that.
“NAAZ should guard this sponsorship jealously because there is competition for sponsorship because others would be knocking at his (Baldwin’s) door but he will say, ‘at the moment, no I am with NAAZ’, but if he becomes unhappy with NAAZ then he will be willing to listen to other seekers of sponsorship,” said Mutsauki.
The veteran sports administrator also commended former athlete Costar Takawira, who is the Managing Director of Baldmin Holdings, for deciding to give back to the sport.
Takawira is a former athletics runner.
“We must applaud the concept of giving back. How many others are doing it? I think we must build on this.
“How many other top athletes do we have out there who are now in positions, where they have access to resources, where they make decisions, who could also come in and complement him and I think this is a challenge for NAAZ because you can actually use him as an example that it actually works,” said Mutsauki.
Online Reporter