SPORTS administrator and former television personality Lovemore Banda has been appointed chair of the executive committee of the Zifa Golden Jubilee.
OWN Correspondent
The committee will spearhead the celebration of 50 years of football in Zimbabwe.
Banda will be deputised by musician Albert Nyathi. Bankers Ishmael Chibvunye and Martha Madziyauswa will be in charge of finance and treasury respectively.
Madziyauswa is also in the marketing committee, together with Astra Holdings chief executive officer Jabulani Nkomo, sports journalist and sales executive Tonderai Marime and development consultant Memory Kanyati.
Also established are four subcommittees — awards, events, marketing and public affairs — which will help in spearheading the celebrations.
Sports scientist and administrator Russell Mhiribidi chairs the awards committee in which football legend Stanford “Stix” Mtizwa and Kanyati are members.
Journalist and corporate communications consultant Marvellous Mapininga chairs the public affairs committee whose other members are network engineer and I-Way Africa senior technical manager Douglas Chitongo and sales and marketing executive and photojournalist, Lazarus Riva.
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Nyarai Chasi, a businesswoman, is the chairperson of the events committee whose other members are Scotia Group of Companies chief operations and human resources director Herbert Takawira and Riva.
Banda said a lot of ground work had been covered over the last three weeks in preparation for the 50th Anniversary celebrations whose theme is Celebrating 50 Years of Zimbabwean Football.
A roadmap of the calendar of events is set to be availed on Friday next week and the sub-committees have been putting together their budgets and action plans which will then be consolidated by the secretariat by end of week.
Banda said the committee had come up with a vision, mission and set of values which would drive the coordination of this milestone event for Zimbabwean football.
“Because celebrations by their nature are positive, we want to harness the positive energy flowing therefrom to project the game to the next level so that the next 50 years are on a higher pedestal than the ones we are celebrating,” said Banda.
He pointed out that the success of the golden jubilee celebrations hinged on the support of the corporate sector, which is expected to support a series of activities culminating in the award ceremony in October.
“Our roadmap is getting clearer by the day and I am pleased to say that all committees have worked tirelessly to put things in motion. A marketing plan premised on robust fund-raising initiatives and establishing partnership with key sponsors is being ironed out while the public affairs committee is finalising its calendar of activities which revolve around a publicity blitz,” he said.
He said the award categories, selection criteria and prizes to be won were being finalised, adding that the selection of the panel of judges should be done by end of this month after which there would be an induction seminar for the judges.
