adminSithole, one of the most respected sports administrators in the world, revealed yesterday that he now wants to make a comeback as the secretary-general of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa, a post which is currently being held by Khaled Zein El Din of Egypt.
Sithole was a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa since 1989 and its secretary-general from 1997 until his appointment into office as IOC Director of International Co-operation and Development in 2003.
Anoca are scheduled to hold their elections in July and the deadline for nominations is tomorrow.
And Sithole has already thrown his hat into the ring and wants to contest with El Din for the secretary-general’s post.
Sithole’s candidature was also recently endorsed by the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee through their president Admire Masenda while Anoca confirmed through their headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, that “indeed Tommy Sithole has been nominated by ZOC for the position of secretary-general”.
“The incumbent Anoca secretary-general, Khaled Zein El Din of Egypt, has also been nominated for the same position and therefore it will be a battle royale or showdown between these two heavyweights,” an Anoca official, who asked not to be named, said from Abuja yesterday.
The veteran Zimbabwean sports administrator, Sithole, has already sent out his election manifesto to several stakeholders in the continent and is quite confident of toppling the incumbent Anoca secretary-general, El Din, during the body’s elections scheduled for July 11 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
“It isn’t going to be easy toppling an incumbent, but I’m encouraged by the support from all, in and outside the African Olympic Movement. I’ve always thrived as an African candidate. I have always shunned language groupings. I have support throughout the four language groups,” Sithole told The Herald from Berlin, Germany, yesterday.
In his election manifesto, Sithole said if elected, he would bring to Anoca the experience of running the most diverse departments in the IOC, “one of the windows to the public which required interaction and co-ordination of activities with National Olympic Committees, the Olympic Movement as a whole, civil society and other stakeholders at all levels”.
Sithole’s department at the IOC was responsible for, among other things that are undertaken with non-sports organisations, HIV and Aids advocacy, the Olympic Values Education Programme (OVEP), the vast humanitarian project Giving is Winning with UNHCR, the school feeding programme with World Food Programme, environment with UNEP and gender equality with UN women.
In the 10 years that he served as the IOC Director of the Department of International Co-operation and Development, Sithole was responsible for:
- Sport and Environment;
- Culture and Education;
- Promotion of women in and through sport;
- International Relations (encompassing governments, the UN, UN entities, governmental and non-governmental organisations, international organisations and such regional organisations as the African Union, the World Bank, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement);
- Sport for Peace and Development; and
- The United Nations (Deputy Head and Director of the IOC Mission to the UN).
Sithole also said that if elected as the new Anoca secretary-general, he will propose to the organisation’s president and the executive committee to glean value from Anoca Commissions, source the necessary budgets and ensure that they meet and provide expert advice to Anoca.
He said he would also advise the president of Anoca and the executive committee on the possibility of an organised way of getting more Africans appointed to serve on the IOC Commissions.
If elected, Sithole also said he would bring good governance to Anoca as he believes that “accountability is the cornerstone of a good administration”.
As head of the secretariat, Sithole said he would act to ensure that the authority of the presidency, the responsibility of the executive committee and the supremacy of member NOCs are respected, preserved and served to the full.
“The secretariat’s purpose is to ensure that the presidency, executive and member NOCs have all the facts before making a decision and then to implement those decisions,” Sithole said.
He said he would also thrive to bring transparency and integrity to Anoca.
Meanwhile, ZOC have thrown their weight behind Sithole in his quest to become the new secretary-general of Anoca, with the local Olympic sports body’s president, Masenda, describing him as “a friend to many of us and a well-known administrator with a long history in Olympic sport”.
“He (Sithole) has been a member of the IOC and served on five commissions. He also remains so far as the only NOC president who ever presided over the All-Africa Games, a uniquely successful 1995 project in Zimbabwe in which, for the first time, both Anoca and the Union of African Sports Confederations (UCSA) were full partners in the organisation of the Games.
“Sithole has been a sportsperson in his youth (basketball, as player, coach and umpire, and tennis). He has practised journalism at high levels, starting life as a sportswriter then becoming a columnist and editor-in-chief of one of Africa’s largest newspaper groups (Zimpapers). He was a successful aviator, a chief flight instructor and served on the boards of national airlines and media houses.
“Sithole is passionate about technology. Many still remember the communication revolution he instituted when he first served Anoca, the changes he brought to the secretaries-general’s annual seminar which ushered in a new era of total participation and empowerment for the administrators and the management style that was to define the Anoca secretariat of the day as service oriented,” Masenda said.
As he prepares to leave the IOC, Sithole is currently co-ordinating the organisation of two more high-profile conferences — third IOC-UN International Forum on Sport for Peace Development at the UN in New York, and the 10th IOC World Conference on Sport and Environment with the Russian government and the United Nations Environment Programme in Sochi, Russia.
Another veteran Zimbabwean sports administrator, Robert Mutsauki, has, meanwhile, said he would not be standing for any post at the Anoca elections in July.
Mutsauki is working as the Anoca Technical Director at the organisation’s headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria.
“I have neither sought nor got a nomination for any position on the Anoca Executive Board . . . I am definitely not a contestant in these elections,” Mutsauki said from Abuja yesterday.
Online Reporter