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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
THE Sports Commission have sanctioned seven national associations for non-compliance, with three of them having their executives suspended for the next two years.

Zimbabwe Handball Federation, Zimbabwe Wushu Federation and Zimbabwe Boxing Federation had their executives suspended while Zimbabwe Netball Association, Judo Association of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Taekwondo Association and Zimbabwe Table Tennis Association were given warnings after the Sports Commission Disciplinary Committee led by commissioner Aisha Tsimba completed the hearings last Thursday.

The seven associations are part of the 10 that were summoned by the Sports Commission last year in November for non-compliance.

They were summoned for failing to comply with the provisions of the Commission Act, mainly Section 29 (8) and (9).

Section 29 (8) states that “every registered national association shall as soon as practicable, after the end of the year submit to the commission:

(a) a report on its activities during the previous year; and

(b) an audited balance sheet and income and expenditure account for that year.”

And item nine of the same section says that “every registered national association shall, as early as convenient, before the commencement of its financial year, submit to the commission its estimates of income and expenditure for the coming year and shall submit any amendments to such estimates.”

Sports Commission corporate communications officer Tirivashe Nheweyembwa said those suspended will not be allowed to hold any executive positions during their suspension.

“Zimbabwe Netball Association, Judo Association of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Taekwondo Association and Zimbabwe Table Tennis were given warnings.

“Zimbabwe Wushu Federation, Zimbabwe Boxing Federation and Zimbabwe Handball Federation had their executives suspended for two years.

“Basically what it means is they cannot hold any executive post for the next two years.

“They will not contest in any annual general elections for any post within their associations.

“Four of them, what they did is they normalised their situation but we had to give them a warning and the other three did not have the requirements,” said Nheweyembwa.

Nheweyembwa said the Sports Commission were in the process of coming up with interim committees for the three national associations and their mandate will be to ensure that elections are held to put in place substantive executives.

“The next thing the SRC is doing is we are now in the process of putting interim committees for handball, wushu and boxing that will run the affairs between now and the time elections will be held to put substantive executives.

“We have come up with names for some of the associations to submit to the Minister of Sport for approval. That’s in line with the tenets of the SRC Act, Section 30.

“In coming up with these names, we are consulting with different stakeholders in those disciplines.

“I think by next week we will be done, then just wait for feedback from the minister because it’s an urgent issue that we are attending to, we don’t want to create a vacuum in those sport disciplines.

“In this instance we didn’t want the interim committees to be there for long.

“So I think a maximum of three months will be given because the whole idea is to usher in substantive executives and their duty will be to make sure elections are held,” said Nheweyembwa.

Nheweyembwa said there is need for national associations to engage the supreme sports body if there are challenges to avoid situations as the suspensions of national executives.

“Basically what we want to say is in terms of corporate governance it’s not an option, compliance it’s not an option but it’s a given.

“So our advice to other associations is they have to adhere to the tenets of SRC.

“We want to say national associations should engage us because we are there for capacity building, it’s not just about weeping the national associations into line.

“We want the national associations to engage with us as much as possible so that we appreciate their challenges and work with them to resolve those challenges,” said Nheweyembwa.