SRC get tough on governance

Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
THE Sport and Recreation Commission have stepped up efforts to ensure that various associations under their ambit turn on a new page and implement the best international practices on corporate governance. There has been a regular outcry that most of the sporting association’s in the country use an amateurish approach to business.

But on December 12 the country’s sports governing body will hold a governance conference in Harare, which the supreme sports body’s communications officer Tirivashe Nheweyembwa said was a follow-up to a workshop they held at the start of the year.

“The purpose of the conference is to take stock of the compliance levels by the national sport associations and any other sport bodies undertaking sport and recreation activities in line with the Sports and Recreation Commission Act and the regulations.

“This year our focus has been on governance and we have found it to be prudent that all organisations which are undertaking and promoting sport and recreation activities are exposed to the good tenets of corporate governance.

“The compliance levels though they are improving, we are of the view that most organisations undertaking and promoting sport and recreation including national sport associations seem not to be quite aware of their obligations to the SRC Act and hence the need to raise their level of awareness by conducting such workshops.

“The challenge that we have is that most NSAs and other sport bodies’ executives members are not well conversant with the dictates of the SRC Act and the Statutory Instrument 342 of 1995 and this has led to a situation where the levels of compliance have been so low,” Nheweyembwa said.

The Sports Commission spokesman said they were convinced their affiliate associations needed constant training and engagement for them to be fully compliant.

“One of the ways of ameliorating this challenge is to expose the various executives of these organisations to corporate governance and how to apply it in their own settings.

“It is our firm belief and conviction that through such trainings, constructive and transparent engagement we should be able to turn the corner. We are therefore targeting national sport associations, local authorities, NGOs, country and sport clubs, associations such as the Bankers’ Football League, Communication and Allied League, universities, NAPH and NASH, Teachers Colleges among others.

“High-level speakers have been lined up and they include the SRC acting director general Mr Joseph Muchechetere who will give an overview of the current compliance status and also the salient points in the SRC Act which specifically deal with the requirements of these bodies,” he said.