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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter

THE Sports and Recreation Commission have indicated that they are going to meet the Zimbabwe Netball Association executive to further probe the concerns that were raised by the local netball stakeholders.

This follows the submissions that were made by the national association in response to the issues raised by a group of netball stakeholders.

There are allegations that the national association has several different constitutions and that there is lack of transparency and accountability.

The Sports Commission’s corporate communications officer, Tirivashe Nheweyembwa, said after going through ZINA’s submissions in respect of the petition by the stakeholders, they want to meet the national association’s executive to have a better understanding of the concerns raised.

“Having gone through the submission made by ZINA in respect of the petition by some of their stakeholders, we have come to the conclusion that there is need for us to meet with the ZINA executive so that the matters raised are clearly understood in an open and frank manner to the satisfaction of everyone.

“It is our belief that this approach will allow for further probing of issues as opposed to limiting ourselves to written submissions. In other words, we need more details from ZINA.

“The concerns raised by the stakeholders are well understood but for the purposes of clearly understanding ZINA’s position, we thought it is important for us to meet with them before we take a position.

“We wish to reiterate that we are committed to putting the matters raised by the stakeholders to rest by the end of the month,” said Nheweyembwa. This is not the first time that the Sports Commission have had to intervene and try to bring sanity to netball. Last year there was an impasse between ZINA and the splinter league, Rainbow Amateur Netball League, that was seeking to affiliate to the local netball mother-body so that it would run its league separately from the Super League which is under ZINA. The two had failed to reach an  agreement on the way forward and the Sports Commission weighed in and held separate meetings with ZINA and RANL.

According to the outcome of the meetings, ZINA was urged to accommodate the registration of other leagues that will have separate League Management Committees that would be accountable to the national association.

RANL was to apply for registration with ZINA in line with the national association’s procedures and copy to the Sports Commission.

But to date there hasn’t been much progress regarding that issue although RANL have continued with their games.

“We will deliberate all the matters and hopefully come to a common understanding,” Nheweyembwa said.

The meeting is likely to take place by the end of this week.