THE Gerald Mlotshwa-led Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) board’s tenure ends in June this year. And it has been a tumultuous period for sport in the country.
Ironically the Zifa board’s term is up this year.
Mlotshwa, a respected lawyer and businessman, was appointed along with the rest of his board by the then Acting Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister Kazembe Kazembe. The board officially began its work on 1 June 2019 after Sports Minister Kirsty Coventry had dissolved the previous board the year before.
Other board members are Dr Allen Chiura, former Zimbabwe Rugby Union chief executive Colleen de Jong, and former ZIFA board member and Aces Youth Soccer Academy founder and director Nigel Munyati, Gail Van Jaarsveldt. Karen Mutasa and veteran sports administrator Titus Zvomuya are also part of the SRC board while Sebastian Garikai is the acting director-general.
The Sports and Recreation Commission was created by an Act of Parliament, Sports and Recreation Commission Act in 1991.
While Mlotshwa and his board will be applauded and recognised as arguably the first SRC board to be hands on with sporting issues in the country, question will also be asked about the many fights many in sport were unreasonably picked by the SRC against several sporting associations in country most notably Zimbabwe cricket (ZC) and the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa).
In both instances, the SRC ran afoul of the sporting codes’ international governing bodies, the International Cricket Council (ICC) and most recently, Fifa which governs the sport of football globally.
In 2019, a tiff between the SRC and the ZC led to the former suspending a newly elected board that was led by Tavengwa Mukuhlani. The crisis between the SRC and the ZC had reached a head when the SRC ordered the suspension of ZC’s elective annual general meeting (AGM) which was to be held on June 14. ZC defied the order and went onto hold their AGM where Tavengwa Mukuhlani was re-elected as board chairman.
The SRC went on to appoint a committee led by Dave Ellman Brown, while Justice Ahmed Ebrahim, Charlie Robertson, Cyprian Mandenge, Robertson Chinyengetere, Sekesai Nhokwara and Duncan Frost were the other board members.
At the time, the SRC reasoned that since ZC was a registered with the government they could, therefore, not escape scrutiny by the Sports ministry. On the other hand, the ICC does not condone government interference, and this came to pass when the ICC suspended Zimbabwe from all cricket activities and stopped funding the ZC.
Eventually, the SRC capitulated and reinstated the board in august of 2019 and the rest as they say, is history!
Now according to the Fifa letter suspending Zimbabwe from the greater football, the governing body stated: “On 14 August 2019, the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) wrote to FIFA requesting the appointment of a normalisation committee for the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA). In reply, FIFA stated that the conditions for doing so had not been fulfilled and referred the SRC to article 14 paragraph 1 i) and article 19 paragraph 1 of the FIFA Statutes on undue third-party interference. Nevertheless, FIFA highlighted that it remained at the authorities’ disposal to discuss joint efforts.”
This timeline suggests that the SRC-Zifa ‘war’ began just after the SRC-ZC war came to an uneasy end.
The Fifa communique goes on to suggest that efforts to engage Mlotshwa and the SRC to find common ground in dealing with the Zifa crisis were rebuffed: “Thereafter, FIFA and the SRC discussed the matter on a couple of occasions by phone and videoconference call to work together on finding a swift and positive solution. In particular, it was initially agreed with the SRC during the aforementioned discussions that a draft roadmap for 2022 would be shared with ZIFA for implementation, with close monitoring by FIFA.
As a matter of fact, a Zoom meeting involving the ZIFA President and the SRC Chairperson was supposed to take place on 14 December 2021 in order to finalise that roadmap. In return, the SRC was to lift the suspension of the ZIFA Board. Eventually, the SRC Chairperson declined to participate in that meeting. Instead, on 17 December 2021, the SRC informed FIFA that it had appointed a “restructuring committee” composed of nine members, whose mandate would end by no later than 31 December 2022.”
Efforts to manage the crisis by the Sports and Recreation Portfolio Committee also seem to be hitting a brick wall after Mlotshwa failed to appear before it. The SRC, together with the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation officials, were scheduled to appear before the committee to give evidence on the state of football in the country.
The committee wanted to have a full understanding of the SRC ban, which was effected on the Zifa board last year, and its implications on Zimbabwe’s football should Fifa hand down a ban.
However, only the ministry’s permanent secretary Thokozile Chitepo appeared before the committee, which irked the legislators.
Omega Sibanda, a member of the committee said the SRC’s disrespect has been ongoing for some time.
“This is not the first time that the SRC chairperson has failed to come to this committee and the problems emanate from his office. We want to understand, we want clarity,” said Sibanda.
His sentiments were echoed by Gift Banda who also sits on the committee: “If we don’t put our foot down, we are going to be seen as one of the worst committees in the last five years. We need to realise what is on our shoulders.
We need to realise the mandate that is given to us in order to bring sanity to all these prevailing issues because if you realise these things have been boiling.
Now they are at a point where we see all these things that have happened. But we need to put our foot down and come up with resolutions that are going to help sport in this country, and football in particular, because football is crying out loud for us.”
In a damning accusation, suspended Zifa board has suggested that the SRC is unbending because of a previous personal confrontation between Mlotshwa and suspended board member for finance, Philemon Machana in business some years ago: “It may be that Mr Mlotshwa has not forgiven the current ZIFA Board Member of Finance who was a key state witness. The entire ZIFA board may be suffering for someone who has an axe to grind with an innocent state witness who was called to give information on what had been done by Mr Mlotshwa.
The Minister was informed of this in September 2021 by ZIFA in the presence of Mr Mlotshwa who could not deny the history except dismissing the revenge agenda. Several letters were written by ZIFA to the Minister asking for her intervention or arrangement of a meeting to discuss this impasse but nothing has happened up until our dismissal probably because of the fear of the mighty chairperson who is fond of name dropping at every opportune time.”
The board alleges: “During the time Mr Mlotshwa who was company secretary was reported to police by the shareholders and owners of the institution after he allegedly sought to criminally take over one of subsidiary of the group where the current Board Member Finance was the accountant.
Mr Mlotshwa who went on to change the signing arrangements from the owners without their consent and started making personally beneficially payments to himself or agents was arrested. The current Board Member Finance of ZIFA being the accountant and therefore custodian of all transactions and books of accounts together with his Managing Director were called in to give evidence on any transactions Mr Mlotshwa carried out to and for his benefit after illegally taking over the company. Mr Mlotshwa was arrested and spent about two weeks in remand prison.
This matter which is still pending was only suspended after the prosecution which was also prosecuting the owners of the bank out of fear that Mr Mlotshwa who was also a witness on that other matter would turn hostile and, on the agreement, then that they will reopen the case after first dispensing with the first.”
Like the ICC, Fifa has suspended Zimbabwe and already the SRC has declared that it will not capitulate and reinstate the Zifa board led by Felton Kamambo. It remains to be seen who blinks first!
