adminEllina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
THE Minister of Sport and Recreation Makhosini Hlongwane has commended the Zimbabwe Karate Union for contributing positively to the sports movement in the country as their athletes continue to do the nation proud in regional and international events.
Hlongwane made the remarks at Raylton Sports Club in Harare yesterday when he met the national team that amassed 12 medals at the World Fighting Kyokushinkai Organisation Championships in South Africa at the weekend.
The championships attracted over 400 karatekas from Zimbabwe and the hosts South Africa. Despite sending a small team of 14 athletes, Zimbabwe claimed 12 medals —six gold, five silver and one bronze.
And the Minister of Sport was impressed with the team’s performance as well as the ZKU, as karate has continued to produce outstanding athletes among them former world champion Samson Muripo and internationally recognised athletes such as Admire Chingozhoro, who won the Second So-Kyokushin International Karate Tournament Ohishi Cup’s Open weight category title this year in Iran.
“It would seem to me that the sports movement in Zimbabwe generally is very successful. The only difference is that we don’t pay as much attention to a lot of other sport codes such as this one (karate). And we measure success in the sports movement on the basis of what happens to football and that’s an unfortunate development that we must change.
“You have done us proud as Government and we appreciate the work you are doing. I am here to acknowledge that effort that you are putting into the development of the sports movement.
“Surely with your capacity and ability to haul medals under very difficult circumstances you cannot be ignored anymore, it’s not possible because when you go out there to fight, some of you are using your own cars, some of you travel by bus and so forth and so on to go to South Africa or elsewhere in the region to make sure you fight for the country or to bring other countries in our country to compete.
“This is something we have to pay attention to and appreciate that the ghettos of our country are producing elite athletes that are able to bring medals and we are very happy that you are doing that. At a time when we have depression in other sport codes, we can seek asylum in karate,” said Hlongwane.
Hlongwane said the sport sector is a market, hence the need for national associations to work on marketing their sport codes to the consumers so that they reach their full potential.
“But again the sports sector is a market. When I visited cricket they said we are the number two (sport after football) in the country. And I visited rugby and they said we are number three and I don’t know how they used to measure this. Is it on the numbers of fans, number of people that come to watch etcetera etcetera? I think boxing is also big and so forth.
“But sports is a market so the point about it is that every sport code must necessarily make it a point that it markets itself thoroughly to be understood by the consuming public in Zimbabwe so that it is able to compete with any other so-called traditional sport codes that we are used to. And be able to occupy that prime space within the sports movement ladder. I think that is very important.
“At the ministry we want to change the narrative and begin to say all sports are sports, and to the extent that it is possible pay equitable not equal, equitable attention to all sport codes. It’s important that we do that equitably, because as it turns out by the way of our design, by the way we are structured we are different,” he said.
Hlongwane also said that there is need to talk about the successes of local athletes when they represent the country in international events.
The Minister of Sport and Recreation also hailed the ZKU for good administration, as he said results can only be obtained when there is proper governance and added that the fact that most of the athletes were coming from the high-density suburbs is a good sign in terms of making the sport accessible to everyone. But he added that there is still room for improvement.
ZKU technical director, Paul Danisa, said the visit by the Minister is an encouragement for the athletes and the union at large.
“I think the team performed very well given our limited access to facilities, but they did very well beyond expectations. We hope to reap more medals, as I said earlier, the commitment and energy levels being shown by the new minister and even in his message he gave us lots of hope that we can be better equipped and be better prepared for whatever comes next. So I think we will definitely do much better,” Danisa said.
Among the 14 athletes who went to South Africa is 14-year-old Bevan Sibanda, who claimed a gold medal in his age-group.
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