adminPaul Mundandi Zvishavane Correspondent
THE second edition of the Runde Rural District Council-sponsored sports tournament at Mabasa Secondary School will be hosted today.
Fifteen secondary schools from five zones will fight it out for honours.
The council has injected $22,000 to promote sports which include volleyball, netball, girls’ and boys’ football.
Only last week 51 primary schools from 13 zones took part in the three disciplines and each went home with a kit bought from the $13,200 set aside for that.
“Our aim is to help children that are not gifted academically so that they be identified and nurtured at a tender age. They must excel and earn a living through sport and help our country to qualify for major tournaments.
“We have not done well in women’s and men’s soccer at the Afcon and World Cup tournaments. Tennis, swimming, hockey, basketball and handball also need to be developed at a tender age and I feel we must do something as organisations.
“We will always try to make it an annual thing besides our other obligations of road maintenance, borehole rehabilitation, educational and health infrastructure among a host of other things,” said Gordon Moyo the chief executive officer for Runde Rural District Council.
Runde has scored a first by becoming the first rural council in the Midlands Province to pour money into sport for primary and secondary schools under their jurisdiction.
The council has so far spent $44,000 in just two years and hopes that the future Kirsty Coventry, Elliot Mujaji and Peter Ndlovu will emerge from the initiative.
derick.khumalo