HARARE - The Zimbabwe Boxing Committee (ZBC), a lobby group aiming to reclaim glory days in the sport, is seeking a meeting with Sports minister David Coltart.

ZBC held a stakeholders meeting at the weekend and drafted names that they want the minister to co-op into the new Zimbabwe Board of Wrestling and Boxing Control (ZBWBC).

Coltart, who last year disbanded the ZBWBC board led by Richard Hondo, is expected to announce the new office bearers any time soon.

ZBC however feel the boxing fraternity has been side-lined in the process of appointing the new board.

“We are actually supporting the minister’s initiative to have a new board, but we feel that history might repeat itself if the boxing stakeholders are not consulted in the process of choosing a new board,” ZBC chairman Bartholomew Dendere told the Daily News yesterday.

“At our stakeholders meeting everyone was represented from prominent boxers, promoters, managers and stables.

“We all agreed on a number of names that we think will help revive the sport if they are also included as part of the new board.

“We are now going to put in a request to the minister’s office so that we can have a meeting to submit the names of some individuals who we think can add value to the sport.”

At the same meeting, ZBC also resolved to help advice Coltart on the way forward in coming up with a new legislature to govern the sport in the country.

At the moment, boxing in Zimbabwe is governed under an Act of Parliament, which was gazetted in 1957 and was last reviewed in 1979.

ZBC feels that there is need to move towards modern trends that will help the sport attract sponsorship.

Currently, local boxers are surviving by looking for fights outside the country in places like Zambia, Namibia and South Africa.

Local promoters are failing to hosts tournaments and on the rare occasions that they are able to organise an event, the boxers’ purse is very little. - Staff Writer