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Mandla Ncube, Sports Reporter
HIGHLANDERS legends as well as former players graced the well-attended Habakkuk Trust International Human Rights Day celebrations held at Lukona Primary School in Bubi District on Thursday.
The whole day sporting tournament featured football and netball teams from the surrounding communities in Bubi District.
Running under the theme “Youth standing Up for Human Rights” is a United Nations theme aimed at celebrating the potential of youths as agents of change.
Habakkuk chief executive officer Dumisani Nkomo said the idea of using sport to commemorate Human Rights Day was to cultivate interest from youths as it is a tool of development.
“Sport is a means of harnessing and harvesting youth interest, young people are not really interested in conventional methods of community mobilisation such as public meetings, workshops and conferences but sport especially soccer and netball are very effective in appetising young people to have an interest in civic and developmental issues,’’ Nkomo said.
In soccer, four teams from the Bubi District participated with the winner playing the Highlanders legends littered with star-studded household names like Gift Lunga Jnr, Siza Khoza, Douglas “British” Mloyi, Ronald “Gidiza” Sibanda, Herbert Dick in what was the main event of the day.
Local team Flying Cheetahs proved too hot to handle emerging victorious to set up a thrilling finale with the Highlanders legends. In the final, the legends were given a stern test by Flying Cheetahs with the game ending in a 2-2 draw, but saved their blushes with a 4-1 penalty shootout win.
Flying Cheetahs coach, Thabo Mkandla expressed his delight about the event as they had a lot to treasure.
“We are more than happy because we learnt a lot from the game we played with the legends, and moreover they taught the youth to take sport serious for them to excel,’’ he said.
In the netball, to provide expert officiating and give assistance to the teams, Habakkuk invited renowned netball coach and vice- secretary general of the Rainbow Amateur National Netball League, Precious Mudenge. Four teams participated in a round-robin format and New Stars walked away the winners with kits and balls offered as prizes.
Mudenge hailed Habakkuk for their gesture in organising an event of such magnitude in a remote community.
@MaroezayMVP
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