Boost for Youth Yames

Robert Mutsauki Sports Correspondent
THE 2nd African Youth Games, known as Gaborone 2014, recently got a major boost when the president of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa, Lassana Palenfo, presented a cheque of a whooping US$2 million to the Botswana Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Shaw Kgathi, at a colourful function in Gaborone.
This amount represents part of the Anoca contribution to the Games operations which have a total expenditure budget in excess of US$10 million.

Palenfo in his address acknowledged the hard work and tremendous progress made by the Local Organising Committee inspite of some challenges they faced and emphasised that Anoca would do everything in its power to ensure that the Games would be a resounding success come May 2014.

In response Kgathi thanked Anoca for fulfilling its obligations in line with the hosting agreement, highlighted the Botswana government’s full commitment and declared that his country was ready to host the Games.

Anoca will make further contributions for preparation costs and travel subsidies of all participating delegations, ensuring the Games are beamed on television in all African countries and beyond as well as supporting the participation of National Olympic Committee leaders and other notable Olympic and Sport Movement dignitaries to attend these Games which have the underlying theme of “Uniting African Youth”.

The cheque presentation was one of the highlights of a hectic week in which 43 (out of 53) chefs de mission attended the pre-games seminar at the University of Gaborone and were taken through their paces, so to say, by the Local Organising Committee Heads responsible for the different functional areas who made detailed presentations, provided clarifications where required and also took note of issues and concerns raised by the chefs.

My presentation sought to give guidance to chefs in terms of their role and responsibilities as it emerged that only a few of them had job descriptions and only four, from the current crops of chefs, had led their teams to the inaugural edition of these Games in 2010.

Kgathi officially opened the seminar warmly welcoming all delegates and underlining the fact that all key stakeholders in Botswana were determined to ensure that the Games, which are the biggest sporting event in the country’s history, would be hosted successfully and that Team Botswana as hosts would be expected to excel.

The chefs, who were accommodated in the Games Village at the University of Botswana to get a feel of the facility and services provided therein, were also taken on a tour of the sports venues for the 20 sport codes.

Most of the venues are located close to the Games Village, a number are within walking distance and the swimming venue is actually within the village and this of course is the famed “Olympic Park” concept which was first popularised by the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

The impression I got is that the chefs gave the Games preparations a “thumbs up” but the Local Organising Committee (BAYGOC) accepted the wise convention that there is always room for improvement and pledged to continue to work hard to meet and exceed expectations in the run up to the Games but also appealed for continued support and co-operation from the chefs and their respective NOCs particularly in complying with organisational requirements and meeting set deadlines.

A formal assessment of Botswana’s state of preparedness was carried out in a meeting attended by representatives of the government led by Kgathi, BAYGOC led by chairperson Regina Sikalesele-Vaka, Anoca led by  Palenfo and the Botswana National Olympic Committee led by acting president Moses Moruisi.

All parties expressed satisfaction with the current state of affairs and the pace at which the Games master plan is being implemented.
Key issues of sponsorship, television coverage and the sports programme were also deliberated on. Another key development from the meeting was the resolution adopted by the parties that all African Ministers responsible for Sport would be officially invited to the Games by the government of Botswana.

Zimbabwe was represented at this seminar by the designated chef, Addison Chiware, who is an Executive Board Member of the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee and president of the Basketball Union of Zimbabwe.

Robert Mutsauki is the Technical Director of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa.