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Tadious Manyepo, Sports Reporter
GOVERNMENT says all sport codes should be played throughout the year to ensure athletes develop in all facets, especially at grassroots and social levels.
While the school system dedicates different sporting activities to just a single term, consultations could soon start, as authorities see the need to have youngsters getting more time developing their skills.
The Minister of Youth Empowerment, Development and Vocational Training, Tino Machakaire, says it is prudent to give youths more time playing sports rather than restricting it to seasons, especially in rural areas.
He said that while addressing thousands at Mt St Mary’s Mission, ahead of the launch of the Hwedza football and netball leagues at the weekend.
“We want to grow sport as much as we can in rural areas, starting with schools. Sports should be played all year round.
“Scientifically, there is a certain number of hours which youngsters should commit to training for them to fully develop,” he said.
“You will see that at a later stage, athletes would be found wanting in terms of certain qualities. That means they would have skipped some stages of their development. That is the reason why we are saying sports should be played the whole year, starting at the school level.”
He is set to launch the Tinmac Foundation leagues in the coming weeks.
“We will launch football and netball leagues, starting at primary school to social levels.
“The leagues will run for the entire year to ensure that those at development levels can acquire enough skills to enable them to be competitive at an advanced stage, while those at social levels can fully concentrate and shy away from socially detrimental activities.
“Sports is entertainment and it is also employment. There will be money and other rewards to be distributed across the social league.
“We have put together resources to ensure that we fund the leagues. There is this menace of drug and substance abuse bedevilling our societies. We want to make sure that we arrest the problem using sport.
“And how do we do that? We want to introduce the leagues that we will be funding. They will run for the whole year. We will ensure that they will play to earn. The launch is coming very soon and there are a lot of partners coming aboard.”
Machakaire was accompanied by the Deputy Minister of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture Emily Jesaya amongst other stakeholders.
Online Reporter