Chronicle Editor
Ellina Mhlanga, Harare Bureau
IT appears the Zimbabwe Netball Association and the new independent league to be launched in the next few weeks are headed for a clash as the netball mother body are questioning the motive behind the formation of the league.
The league, to run under the name Rainbow Netball League, has already secured a sponsorship package of $500 000, with the upcoming season being sponsored to a tune of $250 000 by Pickglow Trading Private Limited.
The league’s secretary-general Moses Gukurume said they are still at the formative stages and they want to be an affiliate of Zina.
“Actually the position is we are still at the formative stage. We had our annual general meeting on the 3rd of February in Gweru where a committee was formed headed by Melody Garikai.
“The position is we have since given our draft constitution to our legal advisor for drafting. After that we are looking forward to get the actual thing on Thursday or Friday.
“Then we notify our members so that we adopt the constitution.
“We are saying all things being equal, on the 17th, we should adopt our constitution and we submit all our papers to Zimbabwe Netball Association because we want to be an affiliate of Zina.
“The league will start after Zimbabwe Netball has accepted us as one of their affiliates,” said Gukurume.
Other executive members are vice-chairperson Patrick Dovi, vice-secretary-general Precious Mudenge, treasurer Joselyne Muchenje, organising secretary Chipo Mhanga and fixture secretary Obert Njiri.
Peter Ncube, Namatai Satande, Viola Chirisa, Chipo Tsumba and Tembinkosi Muremba are the committee members.
Zina already run the Super League with clubs from different provinces taking part.
Gukurume said they were not coming in to compete with the existing league but to complement the efforts of the national association.
“The difference is we want to create this league as a source of livelihood for the girl child. Actually we are complementing Zimbabwe Netball Association on their efforts.
“We appreciate what Zimbabwe Netball Association is doing. But this is a complementary project,” said Gukurume.
However, Zina have a different view of the league and said according to their constitution they cannot have another professional league running independently.
“Our constitution allows only amateurs such as banks, uniformed forces, City Council, those that are more like social, not a parallel league.
“This is called proliferation of parallel structures and we won’t entertain that. If they were doing it in good faith, they know about netball, they were in the structures, why couldn’t they just come to say this is what we want to do?
“This league is not a sanctioned league period. We don’t want to say clubs should go or not, we are just saying this is not a sanctioned league,” said Zina president Leticia Chipandu.
derick.khumalo