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Gilbert Munetsi-Special Correspondent
A LARGE cross-section of the local boxing fraternity recently joined hands to interrogate what many classified as “an uneasy way of doing business” following the publishing of a new raft of requirements by the secretariat for would-be-promoters.
The list, which some argued resembled “a thesis”, was put in place at the end of 2021, but came into full effect at the beginning of this year.
Among other things, an applicant for a boxing promotion permit is required to submit a letter seeking approval, complete with documents that comprise a tax clearance, CR14 and bank statement.
The next batch of expected paperwork should include details such as a comprehensive host plan, breakdown of purses, boxers’ banking details, ID copies, contracts, event budget detailing sponsorships, media rights, attendance fees and expenditure, fees for officials and announcers, videographers, medical personnel and ambulance service, among other things.
And for the better part of the day last Tuesday, boxers, promoters, managers and other members of a boxing social media platform called Boxing Business Contacts virtually put their minds together, and took time to turn the new law topsy-turvy, with an aim to expose its detriment to the advancement of the sport in general.
The group has a membership of nearly 200.
However, at the centre of the debate was the authority behind the authors of the new regulations which were described by veteran promoter, Stalin Mau Mau, as “draconian, demoralising, disheartening, demeaning and absolute junk”.
It has now been more than a year since the lapse of office of the last board headed by Richard Hondo (2017-20) and despite promise by the boxing authorities to have appointed one before the fall of 2021, the matter still starkly stands out.
The Minister of Sport, Youth, Arts and Recreation, Kirsty Coventry, has the prerogative to appoint the board, and the vacuum that has subsisted for that long has been blamed by stakeholders for stalling development on the policy end of things.
Only a board of control can sanction a tournament, but in the interim the secretariat has been executing the role outside of the Boxing and Wrestling Control Act Chapter 76 of 1956.
Mordecai Donga, a legal counsel, former boxing champion and administrator in the past board, argued that all decisions being made by persons that have not been appointed as commissioners by the Minister are not binding.
“Boxing is a creation of a statute which came into being by virtue of an Act of Parliament and it’s this piece of legislation that ought to be regulating all its activities.
“The Minister may have her reasons for delaying the appointments for this long, but what subsists in the present is that the sport is operating on auto-pilot and in the absence of a legal entity. Tasks are being carried out by people who are outside the legal framework of things,” said Donga.
Former Chronicle Editor, Lovemore Dube, who has also served as a boxing board member, said there appeared to be a mix-up, with new expectations being an operational Zimbabwe National Boxing and Wrestling Control Board as opposed to a regulatory one that has guided operations.
“There is no clear-cut position. Perhaps there is need for engagement to have all stakeholders involved in the sport to be on the same page and have appreciation of who is who and where we are headed,” argued Dube, also a boxing journalist of note. Ambassador Zenso Nsimbi, who deputised Hondo in the last board, said the scope behind having impartial people running the policy side of things was to prevent full-time workers from engaging in compromise.
There would be no room to protect interests such as their jobs at the expense of what has to be clinically executed. But Mau Mau, who has managed boxers and promoted the sport since Independence, was devoid of any diplomacy, choosing, instead, to shoot straight from the hip.
He condemned the new rules as being a brainchild of a group of people who, in the first place, have no mandate to tread a policy jurisdiction that is the prerogative of a body yet to assume office.
“The problem is that the people who came into boxing yesterday are overzealous to prove that they are the best thing to have happened to the sport throughout its history in this country.
“I feel their mindset is to try to completely overshadow the past administrators and paint a picture that only they are supposed to be the shining star.
“But there is no competition in administrative affairs of any organisation or institution because by going to the extremes, they are messing up everything that has taken this long to build.
“So ignorant and so blinded by borrowed powers have they been that they even forget to respect the stakeholders who have held fort for all these decades to develop boxing to where it is now.
“Some of us sacrificed a lot for so long (we won’t go up the mountain to brag) and we’re not letting the progress achieved this far go up in smoke just because someone does not appreciate the value of engagement,” Mau Mau said.
Bathlomew Dendere, representing the Zimbabwe Boxing Association, concurred with the idea of an all-stakeholders meeting, reckoning there were more cons than pros involved in undermining the Boxing Act.
Gweru-based Pitbull Fight Academy manager, Edmos Takawira, told The Herald he was shocked by some of the demands for one to promote a bill in Zimbabwe at a time when local boxing was not so lucrative and people were doing it on a charity basis.
“Many people are doing it on a voluntary basis and for the love of the sport. Instead, the general secretary should help individuals who have shown an interest in promoting rather than punishing or scaring them away.
“We have a tragedy in that if promoters fail to meet the requirements, then there will be no boxing activity at all in Zimbabwe, a development that will ultimately make boxers the biggest losers,” he reckoned.
But boxing critic, Coxwell Chigwana, fighting in the corner of the secretariat, said the decision was reasonable and logical and would ensure noone will have sleepless nights any more.
Boxers, he added, would no longer be taken advantage of and only serious promoters would be considered. ZNBWCB general secretary, Lawrence Zimbudzana, was yet to respond to questions sent to him at the time of going to press.
Online Reporter