Zimbabwe Cricket board accused of holding secret elections

By Tichaona Sibanda
3 January 2007

It has now emerged that elections held last week that retained Peter Chingoka as board chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket were held without the knowledge of most cricket stakeholders in the country.

Highfields based Takashinga cricket club chairman Elvis Sembezeya disclosed on Wednesday that they were kept in the dark over the date and venue of the elections. A special general meeting was held in Harare last week Friday where a 13-member board was elected.

A press statement released by the Zimbabwe Cricket said the provincial associations on the basis of their specialist skills and experience elected six of the directors. These are Peter Chingoka, Wilson Manase, Sylvester Matshaka, Charles Maunze and Tavengwa Mukuhlani and Maureen Kuchocha.

The other provincial chairpersons from among themselves elected seven board members. They are Cyprian Mandenge, Arthur Maphosa, Baureni Matemai, Philip Matiza, Josphat Mbanda, Brian Mugota and Lavert
Zungunde. Afterwards, the new board in turn elected Chingoka as Chairman and Mukuhlani as his deputy.

But most cricket stakeholders are now questioning the legality of those elections after being left out of the voting process. Sembezeya said information he has gathered so far, indicates that the majority of club representatives were not made aware of the date, time and venue of the elections.

‘To make matters worse, those elected to the new board are not even known in the fraternity. It just goes to show how powerful people in cricket are manipulating the system to hang on to power,’ Sembezeya said.

Meanwhile ZimOnline reported Wednesday that some stakeholders of the game might resort to the courts to have last week’s elections overturned.
The stakeholders said the electoral process was deeply flawed and want them held again. The Chingoka led board is expected to be in office for the next four years.