Chronicle Editor
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE commemorates its 40th independence anniversary today but unlike in the last 39 years, there will be no public gatherings because of the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This year’s main celebrations were supposed to be held in Bulawayo at Barbourfields Stadium which was going to be the first time for such celebrations to be held outside Harare.
The celebrations were supposed to be followed by a blockbuster football match, which would have likely featured the country’s two most supported clubs, Highlanders and Dynamos.
Encounters between the two sides have always been crowd pullers and have never disappointed.
Pride and bragging rights are always at stake whenever Highlanders and Dynamos clash whether it be in friendly, cup or league matches.
Bulawayo football fans have therefore been robbed of watching what is known as the “Battle of Zimbabwe” for the Independence Cup at Barbourfields Stadium as the country is under lockdown.
Sport, like other industries, has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.
While the full impact of the pandemic is yet to unfold, it’s important to look back at how our sporting activities and facilities have evolved over the years and how sport can be used to improve the health and welfare of communities.
At independence in 1980, Bulawayo City Council inherited a number of sporting facilities, which included, stadia, sports clubs, youth centres and community playgrounds, popularly known as parks.
The stadia include Barbourfields, Luveve and the multipurpose White City, rugby facility Hartsfield Ground, Queens Sports Club and Bulawayo Athletic Club (BAC).
Bulawayo also had one of the country’s two horse race courses, Ascot.
BAC housed tennis, bowling and cricket.
There were also sports clubs dotted around the city, Municipals in Famona, Highlanders, Bellevue, Old Miltonians, Queens, AmaZulu, Portuguese, Archers and Bulawayo Club for the Disabled (BCD).
Youths spent their time at youth centres such as Thabiso in Makokoba, Tshaka at Stanley Square, Inyathi in Mpopoma as well as other youth centres in Luveve and Mzilikazi, among others.
These sporting facilities in Bulawayo produced many sporting icons in the different disciplines.
Among renowned sports personalities churned out by these facilities are football legends the Ndlovu brothers Peter, Madinda and the late Adam, and Benjani Mwaruwaru, middle distance runner Samukeliso Moyo, cricket greats Heath Streak and Henry Olonga, rugby star Victor Olonga and wrestlers Big Mike Tshuma and Max Kutsanzira, among other athletes.
Sadly most of these facilities now lie derelict due to neglect.
Just what went wrong? Where did BCC lose the plot and does it have any plans in place to revamp these facilities?
Could leasing out Barbourfields or Luveve stadiums to local clubs or even building a multi-purpose stadium be the answer to reviving the city’s crumbling sporting infrastructure?
What the local authority has been good at is honouring dead sports heroes by offering them burial space at Lady Stanley Cemetery but is that enough?
BCC’s housing and community services department couldn’t respond to questions at short notice due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
Veteran football administrator Ndumiso Gumede, the Highlanders FC president, who played a key role in acquiring the club’s offices along Robert Mugabe Way as well as the club house, said he is a product of vibrant pre-independence youth clubs.
“Prior to independence, BCC had youth clubs and I’m a product of Inyathi in Mpopoma. These (youth clubs) were abandoned when central government directed that beer profits be sent to Harare, so I am told. So a system that produced the Ndlovu brothers, Lawrence Phiri, Barry Daka and many others was abandoned. The clubs didn’t only do sports but we had varied life skills taught there like dancing, debating and excursions,” said Gumede.
He said there is no need to “reinvent the wheel” and urged council to employ competent youth officers to run the youth centres.
The Sports and Recreation Commission trained competent administrators through its Community Sports Development Programme (CSDP).
Gumede is, however, against leasing stadiums to clubs.
“It’s not a solution. Clubs can’t afford the overheads to maintain the stadia given their shoe string budgets.”
On how Highlanders acquired the club house after independence, Gumede said:
“Having travelled to Egypt early after our independence and seen the infrastructure at Zamalek FC and other clubs, I was impressed and thought that Bosso could emulate that. This is why the club house is called Highlanders Sports Club, not football club. Our vision then was Bosso could spread its wings to other disciplines hence we had boxing, volleyball, rugby, basketball, netball, chess, darts and table tennis.
“All three pitches at the club house were grassed and player friendly way back. But through neglect and vandalism they were left to rot. They were not meant to be used by juniors per se, but by all teams. Further the grounds were open for hire to other clubs, particularly social clubs.”
Gumede said he hopes future club administrators will improve on focus and complete projects that were planned way back.
Bosso’s former camping house in Luveve, popularly known as Hotel California, is a good case of a good vision.
The club would not be ‘camping’ in hotels at exorbitant costs if the project had been followed through and completed.
“Perhaps if they can go to Naturana (South African club Kaizer Chiefs’ complex), they may begin to see the possibility of fulfilling the original vision,” said Gumede.
Sam Dzvimbu, SRC coordinator for Bulawayo, said they envisage a BCC with a sports policy aligned to the Government’s sports policy.
He noted that the Government through the SRC had played a critical part in having some of Bulawayo’s facilities getting a facelift through hosting major sports events in the city such as the 1995 All-Africa Games, Cosafa tournaments that the Government guaranteed and the 2014 AUSC Region 5 Under-20 Youth Games.
Dzvimbu said BCC should return to the 1956 to 1985 policy during which they had a vibrant recreational development policy.
“During the period 1956-1985, the city’s youth centres thrived, but thereafter these centres failed to continue churning out sporting icons at the same rate. The way forward is for all councils, Bulawayo included, to revisit the 1956-1985 era blueprint to revive sports departments run by sports qualified personnel so that Bulawayo returns to its heydays of full utilisation of these sports facilities,” said Dzvimbu.
He also doesn’t believe in leasing out facilities.
“Leasing of council recreational facilities is an interesting subject. Do PSL, Zifa or clubs have the capacity to run such facilities? Council must continue taking its responsibility to provide facilities to residents as enshrined in the Urban Councils Act,” said Dzvumbu.
He said besides concentrating on facilities, the post independence era has seen development of sports administrators who have gone beyond the country’s borders and made a real contribution to sports in Africa and beyond.
Among acclaimed sports administrators Zimbabwe has produced are current Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreational Minister Kirsty Coventry and Zimpapers board chairperson Tommy Sithole who served at the International Olympic Committee and Stanley Mutoya, chief executive officer of AUSC Region 5. — @ZililoR.
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