adminnew chairman of the board during a meeting held at Prince Edward.
Chamu Madamombe will have the dual roles of treasurer and vice chairperson while Rose Kaseke is the new secretary and Molly Matambanashe becomes the new national director taking over from Angela Nyaundi.
John Muringani, who was the sports director in the outgoing executive, could retain the same position with Owen Makarawuwa as his deputy.
Special Olympics founding national director, Bonny Woodman, and former sports director, Mike Mazonde, have been appointed honorary board members.
Mehta said it was crucial for the new board to recover all the assets from the old executive so that they start getting down to business.
“Special Olympics was founded in Zimbabwe in 1987 but it has almost folded since 2008 because the interim group has not been very active but we now coming to revive it.
“As we start operations, it’s crucial that we keep our records well and to do that we have to get the previous board to hand over the assets in the possession.
“Everything we do should be by the book and above the board,” said Mehta.
During the meeting, Mehta went through clauses in the constitution, noted areas where amendments were to be done and also set up sub committees to deal with fund-raising, finance and management and disciplinary issues.
He also pointed out that membership for athletes, with intellectual disabilities, was free but SOZ has to fundraise for its activities.
According to the latest official data, there are nearly 2 000 athletes with intellectual challenges and Zimbabwe, who missed out on the last World Special Olympics Games in Greece last year, have now set a target
of sending a team to the next edition in Los Angeles in 2015.
Zimbabwe took part at the 2007 Games in Shanghai, China.
SOZ will also hold outreach programmes that will be spearheaded by Makararuwa and has identified football, golf, bocce (bowls), athletics and swimming as the key sports for now.
Mehta said SOZ would also host family days as a way of building the confidence of the intellectually challenged athletes through sports.
Woodman, who co-ordinated the meeting, said she was happy to see SOZ on a revival path and has promised to avail her services to the new board.
During the meeting, the new Special Olympics Zimbabwe board also came up with a draft calendar of sports events for the whole year, which will see athletics being held in the first quarter of the year while football
will dominate the second term with swimming coming in early October.
Online Reporter