|
|
Zimbabwe: Fresh Race Row Erupts At MTC
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Financial Gazette (Harare)
27 March 2008
Posted to the web 27 March 2008
Shame Makoshori
Harare
A FRESH race row has erupted at the Mashonaland Turf Club (MTC), with black members alleging nepotism, discrimination and unfair treatment by the dominant white membership of Zimbabwe's largest betting concern.
The MTC has historically been dogged by allegations of racism, and now documents seen by The Financial Gazette have re-ignited the controversy.
The documents allege that racial discrimination remains rife at the Borrowdale Park Racecourse where black members say they continue to experience prejudice.
"Black Zimbabwean apprentices at the club are treated with disdain and are not given the same race riding opportunities given to whites and are treated unfairly in their dealings with their white academy managers," a letter circulated this week says.
"The MTC staff is poorly paid. Most of the money generated by the same staff is paid towards horses' maintenance and prize money, and these horses are owned by the almost 100 percent white membership.
"It appears the board believes the life of a horse is more important than the life of a black person."
But MTC chairman Paul Rugg yesterday described the allegations as "hard to believe".
He insisted the club had tried to promote racial equity in all its programmes.
"Like any club, if you want to join, you can come and join," Rugg said.
"But it is an expensive hobby, you see. It is very expensive to maintain and keep horses. We have an academy at the race course and we are training 14 apprentices, and a number of them are black," Rugg added.
Only one black manager has led the jockey academy over the past two years.
Only a handful of the 100 members of the MTC, who act like shareholders, are black.
Black members complain about the "racist tendencies of fellow white members", and claim they are sidelined when board decisions are made.
"There has been no deliberate policy adopted by the members of the board or management for that matter to try to increase the black membership of the club," this paper's sources said.
They said the few black horse trainers in the industry were not accorded the same treatment as their white counterparts. The Financial Gazette was also told that the MTC had been reluctant to increase the number of black trainers.
|
The best accommodation was only available to white horse trainers, it is claimed. Managers and their children receive free accommodation at the academy.
However, one black manager was "thrown out of the managers' residence where he was staying" and was stranded in "unsatisfactory conditions" while looking for alternative accommodation.
Rugg denied further allegations that the MTC had adopted a deliberate policy to limit the number of black-owned businesses and individuals renting offices at the Borrowdale Park Racecourse.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Financial Gazette. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
