HARARE Athletic Board chairperson Cousinet Simunyu has underscored the importance of teamwork after retaining her post at an elective annual general meeting held over the weekend.
The AGM was held on Sunday at the Sports and Recreation Commission offices at the National Sports Stadium.
Simunyu, who is serving a second four-year term of office, is looking at development, enhancing competition, and promoting diversity within the province.
"I envision a thriving athletics community where athletes, coaches, and officials have an opportunity to excel regardless of their background or level of experience.
"With my team, we need to lay down strong systems to work with if we are to achieve more.
"Above all, we will build our reputation through teamwork in developmental programmes, promoting diversity, enhancing competitions, and making the HAB that we want.
"We can create an environment that nurtures talent, encourages participation, and celebrates excellence and achievement in athletics," said Simunyu.
She beat Silas Muringani for the post, getting 31 votes while the latter got 19 in an election that also saw concerns being raised over some parts of the constitution, in particular issues to do with elections.
"On the issue of the constitution, we had already started. It's only that it was taking longer than we had expected because some people actually were not committed to the process.
"We actually promised NAAZ (National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe) that they will just give us maybe till mid-February; we will be done with it because it's falling exactly in the time-line that we had set.
"So, we need to outline everything when we align our constitution to the new NAAZ constitution because the NAAZ one is now clear, and we are happy because it's spelling out everything.
"Issues to do with membership, eligibility of those taking part in votes and subscriptions, and the term of office as well to say who qualifies for what," said Simunyu.
She will be deputised by Aaron Whyte, who retained the vice chairperson post unopposed.
"Going forward, I think we have got a lot of work to do in terms of governance, starting with our constitution.
"We need to align our constitution with the national constitution and governance in general.
"There are so many things that we need to put in place in terms of policies, monitoring the happening of unsanctioned events, and promoting sports for all," said Whyte.
Sledge Chinyoka remains the secretary general after getting 28 votes against Martha Mashayamanda's eight and Kimberly Chigwedere's 11 votes. Chigwedere, however, got the vice secretary general when receiving 28 votes for the post. Mashayamanda got three, while Claris Gwata and Neria Tembo got four and 15, respectively.
Tsitsi Nhedziwa was unopposed for the treasurer's post.
It was a close contest for the women's chair post, with Lutah Chari emerging the winner with 18 votes while Farisai Tapera got 17 and Mashayamanda got 15. Dasmata Manyanga and Mavhuto Tumba are the officials coordinator and coaches coordinator, respectively.
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Manyanga garnered 44 votes, while his opponents Collen Jimu and Taurai Magaya got one and five votes, respectively.
The coaches coordinator post had to be decided by the incoming chairperson's vote after there were was a tie, as Tumba and Collen Makaza got 25 votes each. However, Makaza, who held the coaches coordinator post going into Sunday's elections, remains part of the board as one of the two committee members. Tapera is the other committee member after they got more votes against the other nominees. Again, the incoming chairperson had to cast the deciding vote after Makaza and Tembo got 10 votes each.
Tapera amassed 18 votes.
