War rages on at ZHF

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Handball Federation are likely to appear before the Sports and Recreation Commission board after they defied the directive to hold elections to elect a substantive national executive last weekend. The elections were set for Nyameni High School in Marondera after the Sports Commission gave the national federation a directive in July to hold the elections before the end of August.

The elections were initially scheduled for March before they were cancelled. They were then held in May, with Simbiso Mpepereki emerging the winner against Amon Madzvamuse, who previously held the post.

However, Madzvamuse disputed the outcome of the elections as he declared that the extraordinary general meeting which ousted him was unconstitutional and should be declared null and void. Last weekend’s elections were cancelled with the electorate already at the venue just like what happened in Kariba in March.

Sports co-ordinator for Mashonaland East Tellmore Chibanda, who was appointed observer for the elections by the Sports Commission, said ZHF failed to observe their constitution, resulting in the cancellation of the elections.

“They failed to observe an item in their constitution. According to the minutes, they were supposed to start the elections at 10am and they failed to do so because they had differences.

“The first item was the presiding officer, they did not agree and later on we resolved that I become the presiding officer. “When they were about to start the elections according to their agenda, the confirmation of electorate was supposed to be done by the secretary-general but the president (Madzvamuse) was now doing it.

“Then the electorate list from the president was different from the one that circulated and the one that I had. “And there was an uproar from the members as they said that was not what they had agreed on and it dragged up to 11:30am. According to their constitution it was a breach of their constitution,” said Chibanda.

Sports Commission sport development manager Martin Dururu said they had a meeting on Tuesday and the issue was now being forwarded to the board. “I think our position as the Sports Commission is that we are disappointed with the governance state of affairs in the Zimbabwe Handball Federation, more so after the failure to hold elections to come up with a substantive national executive committee.

“The issue now will be sent to the Sports Commission board. They will make the final decision on what specific measures to take according to section 30 which gives a mandate to the Sports Commission to institute measures to ensure there is good governance in sport.

“It remains very evident ZHF is not acting in the national interest and also that it’s not running itself according to the provisions of the Sports Commission Act and also even their constitution.

“What the Sports Commission will do is to invoke Section 30 of the Commission’s Act to restore normalcy, sound administration and good governance in ZHF,” said Dururu.

In a report addressed to the Sports Commission’s director for sport development by the ZHF councillors, there are allegations that Madzvamuse produced a different list of voters from the one agreed by the councillors and rejected the presiding officer appointed by ZHF.

There are also allegations that Madzvamuse invited a list of the electorate from 2013 while there are substantive chairpersons and for some provinces there are interim committees that were appointed by the national executive board and are functional.

They also noted that the president hijacked the secretary-general’s role by chairing the meeting he was not supposed to chair, thereby causing confusion and mayhem.

“In our view he seems to wield powers that we are failing to understand.

“If it is his own making, we kindly request the SRC to assist us in making sure that action is taken to avoid future disturbances,” read part of the report by the councillors.