The Herald
by Ellina Mhlanga
7 February 2013
THE Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, David Coltart, has appointed a new Sports Commission board that will run the country’s supreme sports regulatory body for the next three years with Joseph James retaining his position as the chairman.
The previous board’s term of office expired last year in October. However, Bulawayo lawyer James will lead the eight-member board for another three years after his re-appointment yesterday.
Some of the board members who have been retained from the previous board are experienced athletics administrator Edward Siwela, Jasmine Nyakatawa from golf, Obedia Moyo, who is also from golf, and former cricket administrator David Ellman-Brown.
They will be joined by Farai Kanyangarara, the former president of Hockey Association of Zimbabwe. Kanyangarara also captained the men’s hockey team at the All-Africa Games in 2003 and has extensive experience in the sport.
Aisha Tsimba, who is a lawyer and works at a local bank, is another new member. Tsimba is the former chairperson for Zimbabwe women’s rugby and has also been on the Premier Soccer League disciplinary committee.
Miriam Mushayi, a former teacher, completes the board. She holds a Masters in social policy and has qualifications in human resources. The new three new members replaces Eugenia Chidhakwa, Mark Manolois and Obed Dube. In his announcement of the new board, Coltart said he had consulted with President Mugabe before settling for the eight commissioners.
“I am pleased to announce, having consulted with His Excellency the President R.G Mugabe who has given his approval the appointment in terms of section 5 of the SRC act of the new Sports and Recreation Commission board.
“I am very pleased with the Board. They are all people I wanted and the President (Mugabe) approved them all. There is a lot happening behind the scenes and much of it positive,†said Coltart on his Facebook wall yesterday.
Coltart said the board has a bigger task ahead as they are expected to address several issues that have been haunting local sport and prepare for forthcoming events such as the Zone Six Youth Games
“There are many challenges we are facing in sport, for example in football, and we are in a process of cleaning up football.
“The Asiagate report is still not being fully implemented and that is our primary responsibility.We also want to do whatever we can to restore professionalism to football and get additional funding.”
“The second objective is to prepare for the Zone Six Games Zimbabwe will be hosting in December 2014. Their (the Sports Commission board) immediate task is to appoint the local organising committee and the chief executive,†said Coltart.
The Education, Sport, Arts and Culture minister said there is need to rehabilitate sporting facilities ahead of the next year’s events.
“The third point is the rehabilitation of many of our sporting facilities, which is going to be a massive task for the next 18 months.
“We have been issued the right to host one of the Hockey World Series next year and in order to host that, we have been tasked to rehabilitate Magamba Stadium,†said Coltart.
Coltart said the new board also has to instil discipline in some of the national sporting associations that are failing to run their affairs properly.
“We have to tighten the administration of many sporting disciplines that are not being run well. There is need to instil discipline among the national associations. These are the four general points we are looking at,†said Coltart.
The minister said the coming in of new faces in the board is meant to bring in new ideas for the improvement of sport.
“The previous board performed very well and to those whose terms have not been extended they shouldn’t despair.
“They have served Zimbabwe very well. It was just necessary to bring (in) fresh blood and to get better regional and gender balance.
“I have brought in two women and one men based in Bulawayo. It’s also important to ensure continuity and experience,†he said