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Paul Munyuki Sports Reporter
THE Sports Commission have barred Zimbabwe Rugby Union’s elective annual general meeting that was set to take place place at Prince Edward School due to irregularities in the rugby mother-body’s constitution.

The Sports Commission say they want amendments done quickly in order to usher in a new leadership soon.

Top on the ZRU agenda was the election of a new leadership as incumbent president John Falkenberg indicated he would not seek re-election.

But inconsistencies in the ZRU constitution forced the Sports Commission to cancel the annual indaba that was set for today.

The Sports Commission have not endorsed the ZRU constitution.

Sports Commission director-general Charles Nhemachena yesterday told The Herald that the ZRU should amend the noted sections in the shortest time possible.

“The main issue about this (ZRU) constitution is that they say the board can make amendments to the constitution, but that is not it.

“There should be a supreme decision-making body like the Council and those are the people responsible for such issues like constitutional amendments.

“So that is the recommendation we have given them. These changes should be done as soon as possible and within the provisions of the constitution with regards to the number of days of notice that have to be given to the board for an AGM to be convened.

“We don’t want to stifle progress, the amendments should be done in the shortest time possible because we want to see the change of leadership so that we do not deny those with the voting powers the right to have a new board,” said Nhemachena.

The ZRU have been given a week to make the amendments but given that they have to give a month’s notice to the stakeholders for them to have an annual meeting, the elections will be held in the first week of May.

“At least thirty (30) days’ notice of an Annual General Meeting shall be given to those Members entitled to receive notice (to be held within the first month of the calendar year as determined by the National Executive Board),” reads Section 16.3 of the constitution

This means that the annual meeting will also be held after the World Rugby Under-20 Trophy global showcase where Fiji, Hong Kong, Namibia, Samoa, Spain, Uruguay and the United States will be taking part with Zimbabwe coming in as the hosts.

“However, it will not take long to adopt the new constitution because the (Sports Commission) board has set several times reviewing the amendments so when the document comes again we will have to proceed by means of a circular to make the process shorter and have a new (ZRU) board in place,” added Nhemachena.

The new ZRU constitution has been in the process since 2009 when Sithembilenkosini “Themba” Sibanda was elected as president.