Boxing Has Been Hijacked: Stakeholders

By Tafadzwa Bhamusi

Irate boxing stakeholders last weekend described happenings at Cecil House (boxing offices) as “the biggest scandal ever in the sport’s history”, and called for the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on sport to institute a probe to expose the rot they allege is rife there.

It emerged there is great suspicion that some influential individuals at the Sports Ministry  have an agenda to hijack the sport and make it personal business as even the signatories to the boxing account are questionable in both qualification and quorum.

Boxing and Wrestling are guided by a statutory instrument which stakeholders on Sunday said has been torn to shreds as the powers that be make own decisions outside of their jurisdiction, and most of them are contradictory to the Boxing and Wrestling Act.

Only a boxing board has the mandate to make policy decisions and the stakeholders believe the delay in appointing one is a deliberate ploy by some Ministerial officials, in cahoots with the secretariat, to continue abusing funds and engage in other shoddy deals.

Although general secretary Lawrence Zimbudzana last month indicated the Ministry was seized with the matter and would make appointments “before the fall of the year,” there is nothing to show that the matter will be resolved any time soon.

Overstaffing, introduction of the sport of Mixed Marshall Arts (MMA), nepotism and levying of promoters outside the confines of the Boxing Act are some of the examples cited by the stakeholders who met in Harare to compare notes.

According to sources who attended the meeting, boxing now employs staff in the excess of 10, with five of them being managers and an additional 10 provincial coordinators even in places where the sport does not exist.

The managers – who overcrowd two small offices include Administration, Finance, Human Resources, Marketing and Publicity as well as IT.

For the stakeholders, prominent promoter Stalin Mau Mau said the general secretary – who has also employed a personal assistant for himself – has no powers to put in place an organogram, let alone recruit.

“Policies are done by the board. The general secretary can request and the board can accept or deny that request,” he said.

He described the many managers at the board as “generals without an army” and their decision to adopt a sporting discipline outside of the law (MMA) as an illegality.

“Boxing and wrestling are the only two sports covered by the Act, so where are they drawing the powers to add another from?

“Wrestling in this country is almost extinct and it’s been a very long time since we last heard of a wrestling event.

“With their plate already full, why not invest time and effort in reviving it instead of bringing in a foreign sport that is nowhere in the legislature?

“How is it then that a group of people, some of them occupying office illegally, take it upon themselves to divert financial resources meant for two sporting disciplines for a new one? Pane jeri apa,” he warned.

There has been no board in place for the past two years since the lapse of the term of office of Richard Hondo and seven other contemporaries’ tenure.

The death of boxer Taurai Zimunya was last month was blamed on the vacuum in boxing as only the board has the power to sanction a tournament and assess the fitness and eligibility of participating boxers.

The tasks are currently being performed by the secretariat.

Another issue brought to the fore by the stakeholders at the weekend was a new levy (8% of budget) requested from promoters which has also by-passed legal processes to be included in the statutes.

According to the Boxing Act, boxers are the ones who should be levied 10% of their purses, but it has become the norm for the secretariat to demand eight percent from promoters who would have paid a fee for sanction. Nhau/Indaba