adminPaul Munyuki Harare Bureau
AN outcry over Zimbabwe Rugby Union’s “imported” executive vice-president Colleen de Jong’s eligibility to hold office has come under the spotlight after revelations that a serving board member was supposed to be elevated.
Any one of the serving board members was supposed to have filled in the post of vice-president when it fell vacant following the resignation of Aisha Tsimba who had resigned to join the Sports Commission.
But, it has been reported that Falkenberg deliberately avoided any one of the board members to replace Tsimba and opted to “import” de Jong to take over, a move that has caused a storm in the ZRU corridors.
According to the ZRU constitution, the vice-president’s post was supposed to have been replaced by a serving board member, section 23 of the constitution stated that “Any casual vacancy occurring in the position of Director (elected board member) may be filled by the remaining Directors (elected board members already in office) from among appropriately qualified persons”.
However, former Young Sables assistant coach Falkenberg saw it fit to handpick de Jong for the post.
“Actually, Falkenberg was not interested in having any one of the board members take up the post and opted to look elsewhere. His first priority was former women’s rugby chairperson Judy (Judith Chiyangwa), but they did not agree as she turned down the offer.
“He also tried to convince Thoko (Sibanda) who was in the women’s committee on taking up the post, but she declined to take the post as well and this was when he opted to go for de Jong,” said a consultant working with the ZRU.
In 2010 Godwin “Jaws” Murambiwa and Falkenberg were assistant coaches to Brighton Chivandire in the Under-20 set-up where de Jong was the administration manager, Jeanine Bryant team manager and Aaron Jani was the chairman.
“The ZRU constitution also says that only one person can be appointed onto the board, and this is the treasurer who is actually an honorary director and everyone else has to be voted in, while the director of coaching and the general manager are both ZRU employees, but the latter does not have voting powers.
“Another issue is that there is no such thing as an executive vice-president in the ZRU constitution. For all we know there are just two vice-presidents in the hierarchy, one from the north and the other from the south.
“These have to be equal both in terms of power and responsibility and roles but with the current situation it means de Jong is more powerful than Nyararai Sibanda from the south… It doesn’t balance up.
“If the Union needed a chief executive, then like all other posts for employees, they should have made a public advert on the vacant post like they did with the director of coaching, marketing and communications so that everything remains legal and constitutional.”
With the Confederation of Africa Rugby annual meeting in a month’s time, Falkenberg is expected to deal with the matter urgently as one of his two vice-presidents is expected to take up the CAR post on offer for Zimbabwe.
derick.khumalo