adminSenior Sports Reporter
MATABELELAND Rugby Football Board acting chairman Sean Robinson was given a vote of no confidence at the MRFB special general meeting held at Hartsfield Rugby Ground on Monday. As a result, a special general meeting has been called for 21 July at Hartsfield to elect a new committee that will occupy office until fresh elections are held at the end of the year.
Robinson’s biggest crime was that he authorised the removal of rugby memorabilia collected over many years which had been kept at the Hartsfield President’s Room.
The memorabilia was reportedly taken away by a group of former players and administrators calling themselves the Hartsfield Trust last month.
The vote of no confidence was passed at the conclusion of a highly charged meeting presided over by Zimbabwe Rugby Union vice-president Nyararai Sibanda. In attendance was Robinson, members of the Hartsfield Trust and representatives of the clubs affiliated to MRFB.
There was an argument at the beginning of the gathering between Sibanda and Robinson as the two could not agree on what format the meeting should take. Robinson was insisting that it was a normal MRFB Monday meeting which he should chair while Sibanda on the other hand was adamant that it was a special general meeting and that he should be the chair.
Robinson had the support of the life members who said any other gathering which is not a MRFB meeting should have been advertised in the media for it to be constitutional. Sibanda pointed out that Robinson was well aware of the financial situation of the MRFB as they cannot afford to pay for an advert in the newspaper with the notice sent out by electronic mail sufficient.
However, the meeting went ahead with Sibanda in charge. It got heated when the ZRU vice-president asked members of the Hartsfield Trust where they had taken the collections. Brett Holloway, who spoke on behalf of the trustees for most parts of the meeting, disclosed that they had been offered the Rhodes Room at the Bulawayo Club to house the effects.
Asked on where exactly those collectables were at the moment before they are displayed at Bulawayo Club, Holloway revealed that they were stored away at the same place.
Robinson was asked by club representatives to explain when it agreed that the memorabilia be taken away. He produced minutes of the meeting where there was a consensus but they were disputed by those who attended the gathering.
Kudzai Mudzekenyedzi of Matabeleland Busters went on to state that they had lost confidence in those leading MRFB, a motion supported by Emmanuel Mukandi of Old Miltonians. It was at that point that Sibanda recorded that a vote of no confidence had been passed on Robinson and fresh elections will be held after notice had been given.
In light of the latest developments, the Hartsfield Trust maintained that they believe they committed no offence by removing the memorabilia from Hartsfield to what they call a place of safety.
“We are of the view that no “crime” has been committed and the spirit and object of the “trust” has been followed in the preservation of the property for the benefit of rugby lovers and followers by removing it from a place no longer fit for storage to a place of safety,’’ reads part of the statement they sent to this publication.
The trust goes on to state that in a recorded meeting in 2002, the then MRFB agreed to donate all Matabeleland memorabilia to the Hartsfield Trust for safe-keeping, preservation and identification for years to come.
In their statement, the trustees stated that they all had a vote in the SGM and would make their opinions known at that meeting if they had any individual concerns.
Holloway stated at last Monday’s meeting that he was out of touch with who were the best individuals to run Matabeleland rugby therefore he was not going to exercise his vote at the SGM.
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