Drug abuse prevalent in regional sports

ANDREW Kamanga who recently celebrated 10 years as regional manager of the Zone Six anti-doping agency believes there is still so much work to be done in curbing use of drugs in sport.

Kamanga heads the Regional Anti-Doping Agency (Rado) and is based in Gaborone, Botswana.

He said his organisation has not done enough research to have specific numbers of how many athletes have been caught on the wrong side of the law.

Drug and substance abuse is a scourge that has hit sport and communities with many a talented athlete lost to it. He said the fact that high profile athletes were testing positive is testimony that the problem is in the region’s sports environment.

“We have not done research to accurately estimate prevalence of doping in the region. However, the increasing numbers of top athletes testing positive for banned substances is an indicator,” said Kamanga.

Kamanga said education is key to fighting substance abuse prevalence.

Educating athletes about the dangers, he said, is key in the fight.

“We still have a lot of work to do in terms of educating our athletes. We need value-based education to modify the behaviour of our athletes from grassroots to elite. Doping control testing is but a regulatory measure,” he said.

Kamanga said the integrity of sport has to be retained through collaborative efforts of all the countries in the region.

“I also hope that more effective measures will be put in place in the next 10 years to protect the integrity of sport in the various countries of the region,” he said.

Kamanga challenged the private sector to step in the provision of better sporting facilities. For most countries it is the governments and local authorities who build stadia.

“In terms of the challenges for the next 10 years, I foresee problems in terms of provision of sporting facilities. I hope and pray that the private sector will play a more meaningful role in terms of investment in world class facilities to support sport development and event management in our region. This will help to professionalise sport and contribute to the alleviation of abject poverty through utilisation of abundant sporting talent,” he said.

Kamanga grew up in Harare where he turned out for Screentone Rovers in the Northern Region.

He worked for the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture from 1989 to 1991.

His next job was with the Sport and Recreation Commission where he stayed up to 1998 before joining the Department of Sport and Recreation in Botswana..

He was the first head of the Zimbabwe Handball Association in 1992 and helped form the National Sports Association for People with Disabilities in 1995.

He was heavily involved in the organising of the 1995 All-Africa Games.

He has also worked in sport for people with disabilities in Botswana and the Botswana Olympic Committee.

Over the years he has been part of the Africa Union for Sports Councils.

He pays tribute to the former Matabeleland SRC co-ordinator Sam Ndlovu, Nelson Chirwa, Chingoka brothers Paul and Peter, Ismael Bhamjee, Ashford Mamelodi, Edgar Rodgers, Robert Mutsauki, Shaw Kgathi and Negroes Malealea Kgosietsile.

“I learnt a lot of important work skills and life lessons from Sam Ndlovu. I am glad I met him when I was a young and a brash sports administrator,” said Kamanga.