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Takudzwa Chitsiga Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Aquatic Union have come under scrutiny from concerned stakeholders who accuse the leadership of manipulating the constitution to further their sinister agenda.

The association, which is in charge of swimming and water polo, is being accused of prejudicing athletes, administrators and coaches with some of their boardroom moves.

Some members, who are mostly parents and guardians of athletes in the sport, have raised the alarm and say a lot is happening in the ZAU corridors. The stakeholders have raised their concerns with the Sports Commission in the past but nothing has been done so far.

“Many of us now fear that this is a protected sport because it is the sport in which the current Minister (Kirsty Coventry) excelled,’’ the stakeholders indicated in their letter to the SRC.
“If it wasn’t, surely, you would have dealt with it by now as you have done with other sports.

“The things that are coming out in those sport codes are the same as what is happening with the Union.
“Things such as ignoring what the constitutions say, unilateral changes to the rules to make them better able to deal with people that question how they work, dishonesty when it comes to returns submitted to the SRC, selection of swimmers for tours with no objective criteria so that the best swimmers are not automatically selected etc.

“Most recently, ZAU has caused the re-naming of our provincial association to Harare amateur Swimming Board.
“We know that the reason it did this and made it look urgent was to deal with difficult legacy issues that its meddling had caused in the Mashonaland Amateur Swimming Board.

“So, to get rid of them, and not have to face the wrongs it did, it formed a new association on lies. “What kind of leadership is unable to apologise for wrongs done and work with everyone in its area of responsibility, regardless of views? And, why should such an organisation be protected?’’

The stakeholders claim similar moves have been done in Matabeleland.