Cossasa Games begin

From Lovemore Dube in Windhoek, Namibia
Cossasa Games are a Sadc initiative to develop sport in the region that needs to be supported, a senior official has said.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2013 Cossasa ball games finals in which six teams are taking part, Steve Bothasitse, the president of the regional body, urged countries to participate in the championships. He noted that the number of countries participating changed each year.

“There are years when as many as eight countries take part and yet in other years as low as two countries participate,” said Bothasitse. He said this was not good as  it denied talented children from the region an opportunity to showcase their skills.

“This is a Sadc initiative, the other countries must come to the party, it is good for the region and sport when more countries participate. We have noted that it has been a few countries taking part in these championships which is not good,” he said.

Six countries are participating at this year’s championships but only Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe were represented at the official opening. Lesotho and Zambia are expected this morning and the championships have attracted two age-groups, the Under-17s for secondary school going children and Under-14s for primary schools.

The teams are competing in basketball, volleyball, netball and soccer with both sexes involved.
Hopes are that talent from this level will be identified, nurtured and will form foundations for future national teams.
Bothasiste described the competition as a platform for rough diamonds to be identified for polishing.

“This is a platform to identify those rough diamonds that need to be polished,” said the Botswana schoolmaster.
He said he was happy that the region won two medals at this month’s World Athletics Championships in Moscow, Russia, which was testimony of the talent the region had.

“We can only get medals if we invest in schools sport. It is important to keep sport away from politics as sport has potential to be fulltime employment. Here in Namibia you have Frankie Fredricks living on sport,” said Bothasitse.

Fredricks is a former World Championships gold medallist  and at some stage held both the African and World 200m records. He enjoyed endorsements by several multi-national companies at the pick of his career in the 1990s.

Sport all over the world has grown to be a big industry which employs millions and earns some countries billions of dollars. Bothasitse said the region would next year benefit from Botswana’s hosting of the African Championships in May, a development he said should boost junior sport development in the region.

Namibia are playing host to this year’s Cossasa Games after Lesotho opted out last month after failing to raise the required funding. Bothasitse praised Namibia for coming to the region’s rescue. Several stars in a number of countries  that have participated in these games have made it in professional sport with Zimbabwe’s Knowledge Musona, now with South African glamour club Kaizer Chiefs among the top stars of the event.

The opening ceremony was delayed by three hours after a clash of events at the Namibia Independence Stadium. There was the closing ceremony of the regional police games won by Zimbabwe.

Countries that had already arrived for the opening ceremony-Botswana, Swaziland and Zimbabwe-had to be moved to Academy High School Stadium for the opening ceremony. Games started late yesterday because of the delays and will get into full swing this morning when all the countries are slotted into the programme which ends tomorrow.

Last night Zimbabwe was due to take on Namibia in the boys and girls’ Under-14 and Under-13 volleyball competitions with soccer getting into action this morning.

The Zimbabwe team arrived in Namibia at 3am yesterday after a long and tiresome trip which took them to Zambia before driving 500km in the Caprivi Strip and a further 717km southwards. They slept for just two-and-a-half hours before they were awakened for breakfast and later had a warm up with their coaches before being taken for the opening ceremony parade.