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Petros Kausiyo and Tinashe Kusema
GOVERNMENT has been lauded for coming up with a Sport Integrity Bill, with the Zimbabwe Rugby Union, Zimbabwe Cricket and Premier Soccer League giants Dynamos leading the chorus of praise for the legislation that will outlaw corruption in local sport.
Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister Kirsty Coventry has been on a crusade to enforce clean sport in the country and Cabinet recently approved the proposals she tabled.
The Bill provides for the elimination of sport corruption, doping, competition manipulation and illegal betting, among other vices.
It will also allow Zimbabwe to, inter alia: work with other governments, regionally and internationally, to combat doping, competition manipulation and corruption in sport by complying with the Olympic Charter, UNESCO Convention on the Elimination of Doping in Sport, Statute of the African Union Sports Council, among other global integrity guidelines in sport to which Zimbabwe is a signatory.
Local organisations have welcomed the proposed legislation.
ZC chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani is all for the Bill, being at the helm of a sport that has been tainted by match-fixing scandals locally and globally.
“I have not had sight of the specific principles yet, but from our side, we are all for the Bill.
“While doping and the other proposed tenets of the Bill are not really an issue for cricket, match-fixing is.
“As you might be aware, we already have former ZC and Harare Metropolitan board members with 10-year bans and a few other cases still under investigation.
“It was against this background that we invited ICC Anti-Corruption Unit general manager Alex Marshall to Zimbabwe and he had a few meetings with the Minister of Sport, Arts and Recreation Honourable Kirsty Coventry.
“The Minister knows our position and we are fully behind this Bill. The hope is that the Bill will act as a deterrent for those that may seek to partake in match-fixing and the many other illegal activities, while at the same time provide a proper punishment for these crimes,” he said.
ZRU vice president Losson Mtongwiza, in welcoming the Bill, also reiterated that the union had already begun steps to eradicate such vices like age-cheating in rugby.
“The Zimbabwe Rugby Union welcomes the Integrity Bill. It fits into our plans of cleaning all vices in rugby including age-cheating and drug uses. We are on a drive to register all players in the country.
“We have given all schools and clubs enough time to register their players and when The Sport and Recreation Commission gives us the go-ahead to return to active rugby we will not be allowing any non-registered players to participate in the sport.
“Currently over 4 000 schoolboys and girls have registered and the window is still open for registration. We want to play our part in bringing integrity and fair play to rugby.
“For many years, rugby games have been marred by unsubstantiated allegations of age-cheating which has tainted performances. Some schools have gone as far as not wanting to play other schools due to supposed lack of integrity.
“The ZRU has a duty to deal with this during our era and now with Government support we will strengthen our junior age-group national teams as the right aged players will participate against each other,’’ said Mtongwiza.
Dynamos chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze, who battled match-fixing during his era at the helm of the ZIFA secretariat, also added his voice.
“The Bill is a progressive piece of legislation which shall help ring-fence the sport industry from human avarice and selfishness. Our sport for a long time has been at the mercy of greedy vultures who would swoop on it with reckless abandon, tearing into the flesh of the prey with no one being held to account.
“The integrity of our sport has been at great risk as no law was in place as is the case elsewhere, to protect our sport by scaring away corrupt individuals and cartels.
“Once the Bill becomes law, the Ministry should engage all stakeholders of the industry on an orientation programme so that everyone becomes sport’s gatekeeper. This piece of legislation will attract back investors and or partners who had turned their backs on sport.
“Those who used to regard sport as an opencast mine on which they would exhibit their primitive accumulation traits will find it difficult to pillage the precious resources of sport.
“Each association and club will have every reason to have an integrity office which will help protect sport at every stratum all the way to the national level. The long arm of the law can now catch and haul the perpetrators of sins against sport before courts of law with ease.
“The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), Sport and Interpol can now cooperate with ease,’’ Mashingaidze said.
Basketball Union of Zimbabwe president Joe Mujuru also rallied behind the Bill.
“Basketball is still at amateur level here in Zimbabwe and I think that has helped us escape some of the vices prevalent in other sport codes. That however, does not stop us from getting behind such an initiative as ours is a sport on the rise and match manipulation, which is at the heart of all these vices, could become an issue in the future.
“Such legislation is long overdue, and once we have a blanket law governing all sports, this could help us clean sport as a whole,” Mujuru said.
Online Reporter