Chronicle Editor
Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
THE feud between the Zimbabwe Netball Association and the Rainbow Amateur Netball League has sucked in the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) amid allegations that a senior official at the Commission was advising it not to register the breakaway league.
This is against previous communication to Zina to register Ranl in line with its (Zina) constitution.
“The issue was dealt with sometime ago and Zina was supposed to register Ranl. What happened is that some people within the SRC took the side of Zina and forgot that they had initially indicated that they had to register them. We have a situation where the SRC met with both Zina and Ranl and it was agreed that Ranl was to apply for registration in line with the Zina constitution and Ranl acted accordingly and their communication was acknowledged by Zina and they even said they were going to analyse their papers, but up to now they have remained mum,” said a source.
Earlier this week Zina, through secretary-general Barbra Rice, wrote letters to principals of various netball teams threatening that players active in the breakaway league would not be considered for national team selection.
SRC director-general Prince Mupazviriho told Chronicle Sport that he was not aware of the feud and promised to immediately look into the matter.
“The two parties haven’t approached us about the problems they are facing. I will, however, immediately look into the matter after consulting those who were in office before me and then after that I will be able to give you an informed position. As SRC we don’t just interfere,” said Mupazviriho.
Meanwhile, a defiant Ranl has set March 9 as the day for its annual general meeting, with the league set to kick-off a few days after the AGM.
According Ranl secretary- general Moses Gukurume, the national league this year will have more than 16 teams.
“We have managed to add to our national league teams from the police ZRP Mambas, Jaguars Chinhoyi and Harare Central Queens. We are also welcoming teams from the army Ntabazinduna and Black Rhinos, who will be joining fellow army teams ZDF and Falcon. From the Prison side we have Tenax joining Correctional Queens.These teams are joined by Flow Angeles, Ruwa, Shamva, Platinum Queens, Glow Petroleum, Gold reef and Hwange,” Gukurume told our sister paper H-Metro.
Commenting on the issue raised by Zina, Gukurume said they are not moved by the remarks, but are looking forward to the intervention of the SRC.
“As for what Zina is saying about us, we are not bothered because the last intervention by SRC was an instruction for Zina to amend its constitution to accommodate us.
“The only problem we now have is that the secretary general of Zina Barbra Rice has written to uniformed teams mentioning that we are furthering the interest of the opposition party and we will consult with our lawyers to see how those allegations can be redressed. We are urging our constituency to remain calm and respectful to Zina as the problem is not the institution, but individuals,” he said.
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