ZHF squabbles cost players

By Ellina Mhlanga
TROUBLED Zimbabwe Handball Federation have withdrawn from the race for the All-Africa Games finals in Maputo after failing to send the men and women’s national teams for the qualifiers starting today in South Africa.
The week-long event will see countries in the Southern African region battling it out for the ticket to the All-Africa Games finals in Mozambique in September.
Zimbabwe were expecting to send both the men and women’s teams for the qualifiers in South Africa but the ZHF secretary general, Alphios Magiya, said they failed to raise the participation fees.
“We are not going for the qualifiers because we could not find the resources for the trip. We needed US$32 000 to participate and we fell short of the required money.
“We missed an opportunity that could have exposed our talent. Some of the players took part in the African Challenge Trophy held last year and this could have helped them to get more international exposure and experience.
“It would also have helped us to influence the generality of Zimbabweans and it was a marketing tool for us. However, we still have other competitions that we have been invited to take part in,” said Magiya.
The ZHF secretary attributed their failure to mobilise resources to the leadership problems that have been haunting the country’s handball mother body.
“The squabbles affected our resource mobilisation because not everyone was putting a 100 percent effort and the organisation was strategically adverse and it affected the implementation of the fund-raising programme.
“The president did not also sign the recommendation letter for the selected coaches which was another drawback,” said Magiya.
Magiya said the failure to send the teams to the qualifiers in South Africa will have a negative impact on the players’ morale.
“Of course, with people having raised enthusiasm knowing they were going to participate in an event of such magnitude, it would affect their morale,” Magiya said.
The ZHF council held a meeting this month in Harare to map the way forward after they failed to hold elections that were scheduled for early this month, as they had not submitted their revised critical pass to the Sports Commission.
The elections would have seen the coming in of a substantive executive, which could have dealt with the issue of preparations for the All-Africa Games qualifiers. During the meeting, the council resolved to sack their president, Agrippa Sora, for neglecting his duties.
In a letter written to Sora, the council noted that he has failed to perform his duties as the president and this is affecting the federation’s governance issues.
“In a special meeting held at Girls High School on this day 12 February 2011, from 11hrs to 1530hrs discussing among other things governance issues, the council has established that handball business has been stalled in the president’s office.
“You have no time for handball business. In this regard, for interim period of three months to regularise governance issues with the supreme sports body, you were only present for 15 minutes during the council meeting to adopt the constitution on November 25 2010.
“You have ignored ZHF national mandate of dealing, with national teams. As head of national association would take pride in national teams representing their country at continental and international competitions. You never took an inch of a step to convene executive meetings to organise this business.
“As if to sabotage the endeavours of other members of the executive, you refused to sign recommendation letter for the technical officials to manage the AAG teams to participate in the qualifiers,” reads part of the letter.
Meanwhile, the Sports Commission have called on the council to write a report on their move to remove Sora as the ZHF president.