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GOVERNMENT has urged the Sports and Recreation Commission to rebrand in order to attract sponsorship from the corporate world and be able to run their affairs without having to rely heavily on the fiscus. The principal director in the Ministry of Sports and Recreation, Benson Dube, yesterday delivered a statement on behalf of the minister, Makhosini Hlongwane, asking the SRC to lead the associations by example in marketing sport and making it appealing to the stakeholders.
Dube said the Sports Commission should be able to generate its own revenue to fund its projects. He said the SRC should consider rebranding as they have been struggling to get partners to finance their activities because of the poor tag that has been placed on sport in Zimbabwe.
Dube said the SRC should take a self-introspection following the poor responses they got last week from the business community and the associations on the fund-raising dinner to mobilise resources for this year’s Annual Sports Awards.
The SRC need about US$100 000 for this year’s event but the business community and the associations have largely remained aloof in the mobilisation of the resources.
“When SRC calls for such gatherings even the associations themselves should be seen to support. In this case, the SRC should rebrand itself. It must be an appealing organisation which the corporate world should be very much interested to work with.
“SRC generally must not rely on Government funding. We believe the organisation should run as a business and be able to generate its own revenue.
“The SRC should work on resource mobilisation and they should consider entering into partnerships and memorandum of understanding with different stakeholders.
“On the whole, it should be self-sufficient and in our view, the SRC must never go broke because they run several associations and should be able to get revenue from levies.”
Online Reporter