SRC cracks whip on affiliates Minister Hlongwane
Makhosini Hlongwane

Makhosini Hlongwane

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
NATIONAL Sports Associations that do not adhere to good governance practices risk being suspended by the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC), Sport and Recreation Minister Makhosini Hlongwane has warned.

Speaking at a Sports Journalists Association (Spoja) Southern Region interactive meeting held in conjunction with the Bulawayo Press Club on Friday night, Hlongwane said they had declared 2017 a year of governance.

He said this was aimed at improving sports administration in line with the Government’s plan of making sport a major player in economic transformation.

“This is not a banana republic; this is a structured country with the rule of law at the centre of what we do. Some national sports associations seek asylum at their international federations, citing government interference. I want to make it clear that if an association is suspended by the SRC (Sports and Recreation Commission) because they didn’t follow governance protocol and then rush to their international federation to get Zimbabwe banned from participating at regional and international competitions, we will be happy,” said Hlongwane.

“We will be happy because that gives us time to rebuild without you; it gives us an opportunity to construct proper things. We don’t want national sports associations to threaten us, we want democratic accountability.”

He said his ministry would hold its first governance review meeting with the SRC in March and described the impending meeting as “defining”.

“We can’t be held hostage by people who want to run public office without accountability. We can’t accept that.” Hlongwane noted with concern that most associations were top heavy and baseless.

“One of the challenges with national sports associations is that they are big at the top and thin at the bottom. We want the pyramid to be other way round for easy access by the public. National sports associations are a challenge to deal with. As a ministry we’ve declared 2017 a year of governance.

“We reject privatisation of sport, we reject individualism of sport and we reject people who want to behave like sultans in sport. Sport belongs to the people. You can’t privatise sports and you can’t carry sport in a briefcase. For many years sports administrators have gotten away with murder and corruption has been rife in sport,” said Hlongwane.

He said the SRC has a duty to visit all national sports association, assess their operations and even assist their members or affiliates interpret their constitutions, which in some instances were only privy to a few individuals.

“It is important for national sports associations to have offices. We’ve provided subsidised offices at the National Sports Stadium, which is a government facility, but sports associations don’t like that. People have been lethargic about that (moving into offices at the National Sports Stadium) because an office calls for accountability (and) having a secretariat, but people prefer to run sport from briefcases. They complain that government is not supportive when they don’t want offices provided for them and they even can’t produce audited accounts,” he said.

—  ZililoR

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