ZCU's 'acting chairman' hijacks Matabeleland AGM

The annual general meeting of the Matabeleland Cricket Association at the Queens Sports Club on Saturday ended in chaos when an official of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union tried to hijack proceedings.

The problems arose when Vumindaba Moyo, who was challenging Ahmet Esat for the post of Matabeleland chairman, declared that a new black club - Emakhandeni - whose application for affiliation had only just been received, should be allowed to vote.

At that point Mukuhlani, the Mashonaland chairman, who was at the meeting as an observer, stood up to support Esat. "I am here as the acting ZCU chairman," Mukuhlani is reported to have shouted, banging his fist on the table. "Whatever I say is binding ... when I am talking I demand respect."

Esat is seen locally as weak, as he was a member of the ZCU board which made the decision to fire the 15 senior players led by Matabeleland's Heath Streak. The clubs also felt that Esat failed to speak for the province at ZCU board meetings and was overshadowed by Tavengwa Mukuhlani, Max Ebrahim and Ozais Bvute (Bvute attended the meeting but kept unusually silent). So the clubs supported Moyo as they felt he would speak for, and stand up for, the province.

Mukuhlani had no right to speak at a meeting which he was attending as an observer. It is also unclear under what authority he was claiming to be acting chairman of the ZCU. He was accompanied by Givemore Makoni, the Matabeleland provincial general manager, who also had no right to be involved in procedings.

But his intervention triggered ugly scenes as Moyo and his supporters began hurling insults at Esat and Mukuhlani before storming out of the meeting. "This is not a ZCU meeting, you cannot come here and tell us what to do," yelled a clearly angry Moyo.

Eventually, Dennis Streak, who was chairman of the AGM, restored some sort of order and the elections went ahead, but all the blacks who were nominated for the posts refused to stand. Esat was re-elected unopposed while Stanley Staddon was elected as vice-chairman. The results mean that none of the members of the board are black, and Matabeleland, the second most powerful province after Mashonaland, has still not had a black chairman.

The result might not stand for too long as Moyo is understood to be gathering support from the Matabeleland clubs with a view to forcing a motion of no confidence in the Esat-led board at an Emergency General Meeting.