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Collin Matiza

Sports Editor

THE African Union Sports Council Region 5 Council of Ministers has amended its constitution to align it with its organisational re-engineering model.

The Ministers approved the new constitution during their virtual meeting held on January 19, 2022.

The process of reviewing the constitution started in November 2019 when the Council of Ministers approved the recommendation by the Executive Committee to embark on an organisational re-engineering process to be completed by December 2020.

The Ministers thereafter tasked the Executive Committee to embark on the process that would lead to the Region adopting a more efficient, robust and contemporary organisation.

The Region 5 Executive Committee tabled an organisational re-engineering model dubbed “3S+P” for consideration by the Council of Ministers on December 4, 2020.

The model addressed transformation of the Region 5 strategy, structure, skills and programmes hence the title 3S+P.  The model proposed new ways of doing business, including introduction of a new structure to run the organisation. One of the most significant changes prominent in the structure of the Region is the introduction of Permanent Secretaries in the Ministries responsible for sport in Region 5 member countries to be part of the decision-making process in their capacity as Advisory Board.

This is a new development as Permanent Secretaries were not part of the Region 5 decision-making structures in the past.

In the new structure, it will now be the Advisory Board that will be tabling recommendations for consideration by the Council of Ministers. It will now be the responsibility of the Advisory Board to advise the Troika of Ministers and to approve recommendations from the Region 5 committee of experts.

Commenting on the issue of inclusion of Permanent Secretaries in the organisation’s structures, the Region 5 chief executive officer, Stanley Mutoya of Zimbabwe, said: “The current structure excludes involvement of Permanent Secretaries who are the Chief Executive Officers of the Ministries of Sport.  This is different from other AU organs where senior officials are involved in an advisory role to Ministers who in turn advise the Summit of Heads of State.”

Mutoya added: “Permanent Secretaries are currently excluded from making decisions at Regional level and yet they are expected to execute and fund such Regional activities and programmes. This is an anomaly. Even at country level, it is the Permanent Secretaries who advise their line Ministers on policy issues.

‘’They also are the ones in control and in charge of the budget, policy management and even the administration side of the Ministry.  It would therefore be prudent for the Region to involve them in its structures.”

The 30-member grouping of what used to be the Executive Committee made up of Directors of Sport, Chairpersons and CEOs of Sports Commissions or Councils, will now be split into six Experts’ Commissions of Marketing, Business Development and International Relations; Human Resources, Education and Training; Physical Education, Sports development and Recreation; Budget, Finance, Risk and Legal; Governance, Audit and Ethics and High-Performance Commissions.

Chairpersons of each of the six Commissions, plus a three-member Bureau, will form a Committee of Experts that will consider reports from the six Commissions and table recommendations to the Advisory Board.

Appointment of members to serve in these commissions is meant to place experts into their functional areas of expertise and specialisation to derive more value out of the latent skills and expertise endowed in the region’s human capital. The other significant feature of the new structure is the removal of elections from the selection of leadership of the various organs.  In the same manner that leadership rotates at Council of Ministers level, so shall it be for the Advisory Board and Committee of Experts Bureau.

The Chairpersonship of Council is assigned to the Minister responsible for sport in a Region 5 member country whose country will be hosting the Region 5 Games.

The Minister of the next Games host country assumes vice-chairpersonship while the Minister of Sport in the country that hosted the previous Region 5 Games becomes the third member of the Troika of Ministers.

The Troika holds office for a tenure of two years. Both the Advisory Board and the Committee of Experts Bureau leadership will be rotated in the same manner as Council of Ministers with the exception that at Advisory Board level it will be Permanent Secretaries while at Committee of Experts Bureau it will be Directors of Sport. This rotation system, which is consistent with the African Union system of appointing Specialised Technical Committee of Ministers responsible for Youth Culture and Sport (STC-YCS), affords each country an opportunity to be in leadership of the Region at one point or another, thereby promoting diversity of skills and equal opportunity for leadership.  Given that such changes as approved by Council of Ministers in the organisational re-engineering model required amendment of the constitution, a team of four legal experts drawn from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho and Zimbabwe was put in place to facilitate the process of aligning the constitution to the newly approved business model.

Upon conclusion of all processes and procedures, Council of Ministers then on January 19, 2022, approved the amended constitution to pave way for establishment of all the new organs to be established for efficient execution of business. The AUSC Region 5 comprises of 10 countries from the Southern African region – Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.