adminGrace Chingoma
Sports Reporter
THE Sports and Recreation Commission have begun the search for a substantive director-general.
The local sports regulator has advertised for the post of director-general as well as the Operating and Accounting Officer.
For close to two years, the Sports Commission have been operating without a substantive director-general. Since the suspension of Prince Mupazviriho in November 2022, the acting director-general Sebastian Garikai has been holding the fort.
Mupazviriho served in the post for exactly two years although his appointment was shrouded with controversy.
The last longest serving SRC director-general was Charles Nhemachena who retired in May 2016. He was replaced by Joseph Muchechetere who served on an interim basis until Mupazviriho came in.
It is believed that the Sports Commission board parted ways with Mupazviriho amicably, paving way for the recruitment process.
Mupazviriho was suspended together with ZIFA chief executive Joseph Mamutse to enable investigations into how national football teams were cleared for foreign assignments under questionable circumstances in the Covid-19 environment.
Mamutse’s suspension was lifted recently but the football administrator refused to go back to work.
Some of the responsibilities of the director-general, who will be reporting to the board, are: “Providing overall leadership to the day-to-day operations of the Commission. Ensuring the implementation, planning, organising and directing of the operations of the Sports and Recreation Commission’s programs, activities and services, which include related events, publicity and finances.
“Formulating, developing and implementing the Commission’s strategy and business plans. Making recommendations and obtaining approval from the Board and implementing decisions and directives for the Board. Explicitly keeping the board informed of all significant events or occurrences. Leading strategy execution in order to achieve the Commission’s strategic goals,” reads the advertisement.
Furthermore, the director-general’s tasks include formulating organisational policies and recommending them to the Board for approval, ensuring preparation of Annual budgets, managing the operations, undertakings, and property of the Commission, deploying and managing the human resources of the Commission as well as managing stakeholder relations and representing the Commission at relevant forums.
In return, a candidate must have a relevant undergraduate degree in the sports and recreation area.
The process of appointing a director-general according to the Sports and Recreation Commission Act 24 (1) states that “the board shall appoint, subject to this Act and on such terms and conditions as the board, with the approval by the Minister, may fix a person approved by the Minister to be the director-general,”.
This means that the board, chaired by Gerald Mlotshwa, will conduct interviews and selection process and make recommendations to the Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, Kirsty Coventry.
The candidate will then be appointed with the approval of the Minister.
The Sports Commission, working together with Ministry, are in the process of restructuring the regulatory authority, and repealing the old SRC Act, in a move meant to ensure more efficiency, inclusivity and compliance by national sports associations.
Online Reporter