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Grace Chingoma-Senior Sports Reporter
THE Sports Commission say they did not sanction the Basketball Union of Zimbabwe’s trip to Egypt for the Under-16 Afrobasket Championships since their application failed to meet the requirements.
BUZ were last week fined US$50 000 by the International Basketball Federation, after they failed to send the Under-16 teams, for the Championships.
Zimbabwe had confirmed their participation for both girls and boys.
Sports Commission acting director-general, Sebastian Garikai, said BUZ’s application was rejected because it breached a number of corporate governance statues.
“The Basketball Union Zimbabwe applied for clearance from the SRC for basketball, namely Afrobasket Championships for the Under-16 boys and girls, to be held in Bamako, Mali, from 5-16 August 2021 and the U18 girls and boys 3×3 — Salamatou Maiga International Tournament to be held in Kinshasa, DR Congo, from 16- 18 July 2021.
“Their application was not approved and clearance therefore denied.
“The Sports and Recreation Commission raised several areas of concern which were duly communicated to BUZ and are as follows-:
BUZ was engaged in unethical practices in a bid to raise the funds required for the tours. This was a clear violation of corporate governance administrative practices. The Union requested parents to fundraise for their individual children to enable them to participate in these tournaments, even before they had lodged their application to go on tour. The Union was, therefore, charging players, through their parents, to participate in the tours and represent the country.
In view of the foregoing, and out of the need to protect the integrity of sport, Basketball Union Zimbabwe was directed to immediately abort the funding model that was restrictive to talented and deserving athletes with limited financial resources. They were requested to prove their alternative source of funding for the two projects.
The commission was also concerned and questioned the Union’s team selection process, which could have been biased against deserving athletes, from poorer backgrounds. The moment athletes were requested to pay, or fundraise for themselves, left the process with no assurance that the selection criterion was based on merit. This is against the need for our country to create equal access and opportunities to talented and deserving athletes regardless of their social standing and background. Participation in one’s country should never be economically punitive to the athlete and family.
The Basketball Association Zimbabwe applied to participate in the tournaments whilst fully cognisant of their financial status and inability to fund both trips. To which end, the Sports and Recreation Commission advised the Union to desist from applying to participate on any external tours unless and until they could demonstrate their ability and capacity to effectively finance their activities.
Additionally, we noted the following about BUZ’s application — it did not have the requisite details of players and their passport numbers as is required with all applications for tour approval.
“BUZ were informed of the non-approval of their tour on the 13th of July 2021 and urged to communicate with FIBA of this development and seek a waiver from FIBA not to pay the US$25 000 penalty fees (per team).
Last week BUZ president, Joe Mujuru, said their predicament was not triggered by anyone’s fault.
“I don’t think it’s anyone fault, I don’t think it’s BUZ fault because we did the best we could and we were ready to travel, until the last minute,” said Mujuru.
“I don’t think it’s the SRC’s fault because we all saw the (Covid-19) cases going up in our country, and it’s certainly not FIBA fault because they have organised a very good competition,” he said.
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