THE Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation is
pushing to have a stake in the management and control of the Government-owned
sporting facilities as a panacea to the long-standing turf wars between
national associations and the administration manning the arenas.
Venues such as the National Sports Stadium, Chitungwiza
Aquatic Complex and Magamba Hockey Stadium are under the management of the
Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing and they have
been scenes of clashes between sport and other non-sporting events like music
concerts, political rallies and religious gatherings.
Apparently, sports events have been disrupted to pave way
for the non-sporting events which at times have been getting the priority ahead
of the local teams and athletes because they usually pay more for hiring the
venue.
However, the Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation,
Kirsty Coventry, recently revealed that her office is in the process of
preparing a concept paper to be tabled before Cabinet following discussions
with the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.
Coventry wants the Ministry of Sport to have a bigger say
in the management and control of the facilities. The former Olympic gold
medallist was disturbed why national teams are being made to pay through the
nose to use the facilities built by the Government.
“We are in a conversation and we are, as a Ministry,
putting together a concept paper that we will then take to Cabinet to request
that we take over management.
“We have also met quite a few Honourable Members of
Parliament (recently) for Ministry to start figuring out how to take management
of the sport facilities; what does that look like; are they joint?
“Right now most of our sport facilities fall under Local
Government and Public Works and it’s just hard to get access.
“But when we look at the 1995 All-Africa Games, the
Ministry along with public partners put a lot of money into these facilities
that you see. Now they charge us a fortune to use them.
“We have just signed a Memorandum Of Understanding with
Bindura University and I made sure in that MoU that we will not pay a cent for
our national teams.
“If part of the deal was for Government to put in money to
build the infrastructure, why are you then going to charge us to use the
facilities for our national A teams. So this is a conversation that has been
happening for a long time and I am hoping to try and to speed it up,” said
Coventry.
Earlier this year, the senior men’s national football team
was denied the opportunity to train at the National Sports Stadium ahead of a
key AFCON qualifier against Congo Brazaville by officials manning the giant
facility.
This followed a stand-off between Zifa and the Ministry of
Local Government over the disbursement of their share from the gate takings.
The Local Government Ministry collects a 12 percent levy from the gate takings
for the use of the stadium and they wanted assurances from Zifa on how they
would get their money after the association had introduced a new e-ticketing
system.
As a result, the Warriors failed to train on the home turf
for the final 2019 Afcon qualifier against Congo, which they went on to win 2-0
and book their berth for finals which were held in Egypt between June and July.
It was the first time the Warriors had failed to train at
their home ground going into a home fixture of an Afcon game.
Coventry then described the decision to bar the team from
training as “disgusting”.
Local teams have also fallen prey at times to the other
events that compete for the use of the facilities. In 2017, one of the biggest
matches on the domestic calendar, the Harare Derby featuring Dynamos and Caps
United, was postponed after the stadium was booked for a church gathering.
In fact, some of the facilities are now being used more for
activities other than sport. Chitungwiza Aquatic Complex, for example, is now
known more as a venue for music shows than swimming and handball, for which it
was built.
Magamba Hockey Stadium has hosted more church gatherings
than the game of hockey in the past decade.
The management at the facilities are reportedly making a
living out of renting out the facilities. The sad story, however, is that the
facilities have been deteriorating over the years due to lack of maintenance.
The National Sports Stadium was recently banned by Caf
after failing to meet the minimum requirements to host international matches.
Rufaro, which is owned by Harare City Council, has since been condemned while
Mandava also failed the test.
Gwanzura, which also used to host Premiership matches, has
been closed for the past three years and there is no hope the ground will open
any time soon despite several assurances from the owners, the Harare City
Council.
Only Barbourfields was given a special waiver by Caf on
their latest inspection last month. Zimbabwe face the embarrassment of having
to play their home matches in the 2021 Afcon and 2022 World Cup qualifiers in
neighbouring countries next year.
Magamba Hockey Stadium and Chitungwiza Aquatic Complex are
also in deplorable state and have not been used for sporting activities for
years. Sport is the biggest loser as most of these facilities, which cost a
fortune to set up, have become white elephants. Herald
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