Published by the government of Zimbabwe
18 June 2009
Harare — The Anoca meeting will see some of Africa's top sports administrators fighting for various positions on the organisation's executive board, currently led by its president Lassana Palenfo of Cote d'Ivoire.
Palenfo will be seeking re-election at the July indaba where he will be challenged by Kalkaba Hamad, the president of the Cameroon National Olympic Committee.
Hamad is also the president of the African Athletics Confederation.
Apart from the Anoca presidency, other posts to be be contested for include the powerful post of secretary-general, the four vice-presidents and treasurer.
And among candidates for secretary-general will be veteran Zimbabwean sports administrator Robert Mutsauki.
At the close of nomination for all the posts on June 6, six candidates, including Mutsauki, were duly nominated for the post of secretary-general.
Mutsauki, the chief executive of the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee, will fight it out with five other "strong" candidates from Rwanda, Egypt, Congo, Nigeria and Senegal.
The other contestants for secretary-general are Ignace Beraho, president of the National Olympic Committee of Rwanda, Khaled Eldin, the secretary-general of the National Olympic Committee of Egypt, Raymond Ibata, the president of the National Olympic Committee of Congo, Oladapo Olabanji, the secretary-general of the National Olympic Committee of Nigeria, and Santi Hagne, thesecretary-general of the National Olympic Committee of Senegal.
Mutsauki yesterday admitted that all five other candidates in the contest posed a serious threat to his ambitions.
"As you can see, it's quite a tough race . . . The post of secretary-general has attracted the highest number of contestants and it's a challenge for me," said Mutsauki.
"But what makes this race even more challenging is that the only prize available is for the winner and all the runners-up will have to walk away empty-handed.
"This means that although we are in the home stretch now, there's still a lot of work to do to get the seal of approval from the electorate.
"All the candidates will therefore intensify their campaigns as the elections day approaches." Mutsauki said.
He acknowledged he had a big fight on his hands. "It's difficult to single out a candidate who is a major threat to me in this election because nobody can be ruled out of this race.
"Elections are often full of surprises because it's not always clear what the electorate are looking for.
"But given the current state of Anoca, I would like to believe the electorate are looking for an individual who can deliver to their expectations.
"At the end of the day, as a candidate, I have to rely on my strong points rather than the weaknesses of my opponents and I would like to believe that I have the qualities that the electorate are looking for in terms of leadership, vision as well as managerial and technical competence which is critical for this key post."
Mutsauki is aiming to become the second Zimbabwean since 1997 to become the boss of this powerful African sport organisation.
Former ZOC president, Tommy Sithole, was the first Zimbabwean to hold this influential post when he was elected as the Anoca secretary-general in December 1997.
Sithole later rose to become an executive com- mittee member of the powerful International Olympic Committee.
He is now based in Laussane, Switzerland, where he is currently working as the IOC's Director for International Cooperation and Development on a full-time basis.
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