The Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) president William Blick has no doubt in the abilities of the newly appointed National Council of Sports (NCS) Chairman Donald Rukare .
The state Minister for Sports Hamson Denis Obua recently appointed Rukare as the new NCS chairperson.
Rukare is also the president for Uganda Swimming Federation and UOC general secretary, a position he has held for seven years.
“I had no prior knowledge about the appointment of my General Secretary to that post but I promise you Donald is the right choice for that post. He has good sports back ground since childhood so he understands this task. He is very experienced having led and transformed Swimming in the country in addition to having enough sports academic qualifications,” William Blick told Watchdog Uganda.
To an obvious view, the appointment of a top UOC figure to this post looks like a strategic move by the Minister to bridge the friction between these two bodies that had slowed the development of sports for the last seven years.
During the annual Swimming awards gala, Rukare announced that he was going to relinquish his Swimming presidency in order to objectively regulate other sports federations but for the case of UOC General Secretary- ship , it is business as usual since the UOC constitution, Olympic Charter and NCS constitution don’t stop him from holding these two positions concurrently since NCS and UOC are different bodies with different roles.
NCS is supposed to deal with development and regulation of national sports federations while UOC deals with elite sport of Olympics, Common wealth games and All Africa games with the two complimenting each other.
Blick advises Rukare to replicate what happens at UOC to ensure that NCS belongs to all member federations.
“Make regular meetings with federations to understand their concerns, give all the necessary assistance to your members and be transparent. Make NCS more accessible to all members as we do it here at UOC, ”Blick advised Rukare.
Rukare has 15 years administration experience at Uganda Swimming Federation in addition to seven years as UOC general secretary.
He is also an arbitrator of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) , a panel member of the results management panel of the Regional Anti-Doping Agency (RADO), a member of the Commonwealth Games Federation Ethics Commission and is a MEMOS Professor, teaching Governance and Sports Management on the IOC MEMOS Master’s program in addition to an International Olympic Committee (IOC) consultant/advisor that has undertaken assignments for the IOC in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Lesotho.
Rukare also holds an Executive Masters in Sports Management from the University of Louvain Belgium (with Distinction) and has undertaken leadership/ strategic management courses at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Business School in the USA.
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