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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
HARARE based board members for the just ended AUSC Region 5 Under-20 Youth Games and support staff have allegedly been paid their allowances while their Bulawayo counterparts are yet to be paid.

The local organising committee is said to have informed the Bulawayo officials that there is no payment for them.

Sources said all the officials from Harare were paid yet their counterparts in Bulawayo are being told that there is no payment.

“Even students from Bindura University who were bussed as officials to the Games as a result of one of their lecturers’ position in the local organising committee were paid their allowances” said the source.

The Bindura University contingent came in as volunteers with Eugenia Chidakwa, a lecturer at the university who is also one of the directors in the AUSC Region 5, claiming that they came in as part of the university’s “donation” to the Games.

She could not answer why a “donation” should be paid for.

“What also concerns us is that Harare guys have been given their money and we have nothing yet some of us have been here since end of

May last year with the Harare crew joining us at the end of November, a few weeks before the start of the Games.

“We did the same tasks with them at times well into the night,” said an angry support staff member speaking on condition of anonymity.

When Chidakwa was quizzed about the issue, she said that she was surprised that there were people clamouring for payment when they knew pretty well that no one was entitled to allowances as the support staff were government employees who were seconded to the Games by their employer and therefore remained on the government payroll.

Her claims were supported by the loc chairperson Khonzani Ncube.

However the board members themselves, most of whom are senior government employees, were getting $150 as sitting allowances which saw some getting a minimum of $2,500 while one named government official (name supplied) received about $4,500.

“That was her travel and subsistence allowance which she is entitled to as a government employee,” said Ncube.

She could not explain why other government employees who came from the capital did not get a similar allowance.
Ncube also defended the bussing in of Bindura University staff to be volunteers arguing that Bulawayo was just a host city for national Games.

Her sentiments come against a background of a government order during the venues’ construction that jobs should be given to locals only as a way of empowering them and getting them to embrace the Games.

The ploy appeared to have worked as most venues were full during the Games.

During the interview that lasted for more than two hours at their Africa House offices on Wednesday, the Loc leadership comprising chairperson Ncube, her deputy Nyararai Sibanda, Freejoy Mavolwane and a Sibindi, would occasionally come up with contradicting statements.

Ncube at one time said those who were aggrieved should actually go to the people who promised them allowances when they came on board.

She did not deny that as board chairperson she was among the recipients of the $150 sitting allowance.

“As for the $150 sitting allowance, contact the appointing authority, the Minister of Sports, Art and Culture, Andrew Langa, I can’t answer that question,” said Ncube who repeatedly wanted to know the source of the information.

Minister Langa’s mobile phones have not been reachable.

Insiders said the Regional Organising Committee’s agreed position was that they would receive $50 a day, Ncube’s board members and sub committees $30 and volunteers $10 per day during the Games.

Several people were asked to be on duty full-time from December 2 to 17. Prior to that some had been engaged in several meetings but were not paid despite working odd hours and paying taxis from their pockets to get home.

There are also allegations that a board member from the local organising committee looted some clothing consignment meant for officials and volunteers on the pretext that she was taking the regalia to Cabinet. The official however denied the allegations saying everything she took was signed for and taken to the intended officials.

“Yes, the items were signed for but they were just too many that we wonder whether they reached their intended destination. The whole issue was just suspicious because some of the people who were said to have been given the items later came asking for the same things,” said a source who is well informed about the goings-on.

Asked to comment on the allegations of looting of material which included T-shirts, blazers, caps, tracksuits, satchels, shoes and sun hats, Ncube refused to comment on that saying there was a pending audit to be carried out so commenting would prejudice the process.