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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
According to the Sports and Recreation Commission Act, Zimbabwe has 59 National Sports Associations (NSAs) all of which must abide by the SRC Act, failure of which the Commission must without fear or favour swiftly deal with.
There must be no sacred sports associations in the eyes of the SRC and in the same vein, there must be no black sheep, never mind what the general populace might say or feel like. All NSAs must be treated equally.
Of late, however, this has not been the case, or at least in as far as the public is concerned with seemingly two associations, the Zimbabwe Cricket and Zifa feeling the wrath of the Commission.
The question which arises is; are these the only rule-breaking associations? Are these the only associations that are so against the dictates of the law?
In April this year, Chronicle Sport wrote about the sad state of affairs in the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (NAAZ), led by Tendai Tagara.
Yes, the present SRC board had not yet taken office but if they had been doing their work, they would have discovered that the whole of Zimbabwe has no standard athletics track in terms of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) requirements.
This means all times and records registered by athletes on any Zimbabwean track are null and void as they are not recognised by the IAAF neither can they be used as qualification for any international event.
IAAF technical manager, competitions and events Imre Matrahazi told this publication then that they previously had correspondence with NAAZ over White City Stadium about five years ago, but there had been no progress ever since.
The National Sports Stadium was previously certified when the country played host to the 1995 All-Africa Games. The lanes were remarked in 2009 but IAAF standards were not followed.
“We had some correspondence about five years ago about the Bulawayo track, but there has been no progress since.
“There is no IAAF-certified track in Zimbabwe.”
“In the normal case, the certification process gets underway by sending the application form, including attachments (measurement report, etc).
“We then issue an invoice after which the applicant then transfers the fee to IAAF who will then send a confirmation certificate and the track will be certified,” said Matrahazi.
If this adverse comment cannot jerk SRC to act then what can? Naaz, just like any association found to be in dereliction of duty must be decisively dealt with by the SRC, but alas, it’s not the case.
Maybe we might be wrong but whatever action the SRC is or has taken against Naaz has not been made public in the same way that every purportedly harsh action on Zifa has been brought on to the public domain.
The same applies to netball – an official goes AWOL while on national duty in England, the constitution is trampled upon literally everyday but no action is taken.
I can only imagine the outcry that would have been heard if a Zifa official went AWOL and decided not to return home from Afcon!
This is why we say the SRC must treat all its associations the same lest we take it that its actions on Zifa are driven more by personal egos than anything else.
Online Reporter