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Tirivashe Nheweyembwa

Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
THE Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) is set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Commercial Arbitration Centre (CAC) to help National Sports Associations (NSAs) settle disputes.

The resolution for signing of the agreement was reached during a quarterly meeting between the country’s supreme sports body and NSAs held at the weekend.

The NSAs were, however, also told to urgently amend their constitutions to include a clause entailing them to refer disputes to the CAC after exhausting all internal mechanisms.

“The meeting was attended by the National Sport Associations’ secretary generals and it resolved that there was need for the SRC to proceed with signing a MoU with the Commercial Arbitration Centre for dispute resolution. It was, however, noted that some National Sport Associations did not have explicit dispute resolution procedures and they were to amend their constitutions as soon as possible and to include a clause which refers disputes to the Commercial Arbitration Centre when they have exhausted all internal mechanisms without success,” said SRC communications officer Tirivashe Nheweyembwa.

The CAC is the last dispute resolution before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Nheweyembwa said a six-member committee was set up to research on how colours are awarded to athletes, as the present system was governed by the SRC Act and the NSA constitutions.

According to the SRC Act, Chapter 31 (i) the President shall, by statutory instrument, declare the National Colours of Zimbabwe.

(ii The Commission may award National Colours to any individual, team or association and by statutory instrument make rules governing such awards.

(iii) No person shall wear or display the National Colours otherwise than in accordance with an award by the Commission in terms of subsection (2) or in accordance with an award made before the 1st September, 1991, under the Zimbabwe Youth Council Act [Chapter 25:19] which shall be deemed to be an award made by the Commission.

(4) Any person who contravenes subsection (3) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to a fine not exceeding level three.

“The colours are given to the teams or athletes for outstanding performance and the NSAs apply to the SRC and we issue out the certificates to them. So the team will have to research on how other countries are doing it and recommend to us,” said Nheweyembwa.

@skhumoyo2000