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Eddie Chikamhi Sports Reporter
SPORT, Arts and Culture Minister Andrew Langa revealed yesterday that he will appoint a new Sports Commission board. The current board was appointed by former Sports Minister David Coltart and some of its members have been accused of pursuing a hidden agenda to destablise Zimbabwe Cricket and doing little to address challenges affecting football.

Langa appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Sport, Arts and Culture yesterday.
“We are going to appoint new boards. Some of (the members) may be retained and some of them obviously may go home,” Langa said.

“The current chairperson of our SRC board is Joseph James who is based in Bulawayo and the chairperson of the (National) Arts Council is Nozipho Maraire.
“Definitely, they are in place as we speak now, operational especially the SRC.

“But soon we will be appointing new boards in line with the requirements of our Zim-Asset and we will ensure that we appoint the right persons who have the right qualifications and also have the background knowledge of the disciplines that we appoint them for.

“I said let us have men and women in our national associations, in our boards that have interest, people who have sport at heart.  “Most of them come into these national associations and most of them would want to be incorporated into our boards just for allowances and many other privileges.

“I said as we appoint our new boards we are going to ensure that we appoint the correct men and women who have the expertise and the background knowledge.” Temba Mliswa, the chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Sport, Arts and Culture, was not amused by the latest no-show by Zifa after the national football association failed to turn up for a meeting yesterday.

Mliswa said what was puzzling was the fact that Langa managed to respect the institution and addressed the committee yet the football leadership has repeatedly failed to show up.

The Hurungwe West legislator yesterday appealed to Langa to convince the leadership at 53 Livingston Avenue to honour the invitation as they seek to address problems bedevilling the game.

Zifa have been called to the committee previously but they indicated they were unable to turn up because of other commitments.
“On a sad note we have tried to engage Zifa on this platform and for the umpteenth time they didn’t come,” Mliswa said. “As a committee we don’t know what else to do if you the minister can come, what about them? We now appeal to your good office to encourage them to come.”