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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
Deputy Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Tabetha Kanengoni-Malinga has called on the corporate world to come on board and invest in sport. She made the call at a Press conference in Harare yesterday where she met three-time World women’s motocross champion Stefy Bau of Italy, who is currently in the country to help young Zimbabwean rider Tanya Muzinda improve her riding skills.
“I would like to make an appeal to the corporate world to support not only Tanya but all sport codes, the Government can only go so far in assisting our athletes.
“So we would like to have people on board who can grow sport in our country. We would like to have people who can grow motocross as a sport code and together we can make Zimbabwe a great nation in terms of sports.
“There are some sport codes that have gone unnoticed, that have been undermined like motocross and as a Ministry our goal is to make sure that all sports codes are treated equally. Zimbabwe is a soccer-loving nation, a cricket-loving nation and we have supported those sport codes for a very long time.
“But we want to expand to other sporting disciplines so that our nation has a balanced grill of talent.
“We are always talking about representation in the Olympics and we have failed in the recent past to send a lot of athletes to the Olympics.
“Part of the reason is the issue of funding but also we haven’t taken the opportunity to look at the talent that we have and see exactly how we can groom that talent,” said Kanengoni-Malinga.
The Deputy Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture also hailed Tanya for her efforts and acknowledged Bau for her helping hand.
“Tanya Muzinda has made us very proud as a nation, she is the youngest motocross athlete in Zimbabwe. She is only nine years old and when there is talent like this in our nation we want to groom it, we want to support her.
“Her parents have supported her for a very long time and now that we have the stand-alone Ministry of Sports, Arts and Culture, we have the opportunity to have direct focus on individual talent as well as group talent.
“We have Stefy Bau who recognised the talent in Tanya when she was representing Zimbabwe in South Africa and she decided that she would like to help in coaching Tanya so that she can become a better motocross athlete that can compete at international level,” said Kanengoni-Malinga.
Bau, who is based in Florida, United States, said she is happy to be working with young Tanya and added that she has the potential of reaching greater heights in the motorcycling sport of motocross.
“We worked hard for a lot of months to be able to put it together and I am finally here.
“So we ended up doing a little bit of training already.
“I have to say that she is a very quick learner so that’s a good thing because she listens a lot.
“I really have higher expectations of her, I really hope that with training throughout the year, she can become an internationally recognised athlete.
“I can relate to her a little bit because I have a similar story.
“I come from Italy that’s a country I started from as a little girl where there were no little girls racing in motocross and winning with the boys.
“So I did that and I was able to make a career out of it and become the first woman to compete with the men professionally.
“Now I have the chance to have Tanya (under my guidance) and I would like to be an inspiration to her, be her mentor and try to help her achieve what she wants in life,” Bau said.
Tanya’s father Tawanda “Polycup” Muzinda, said they were grateful to the Deputy Minister for showing her support to his daughter.
“We have been struggling a lot because of the harsh economic climate, there’s a shortage of cash but the corporate support is coming up slowly especially with the intervention of the Honourable Minister.
‘And I am glad that we are all helping this little talent to grow to that international stardom that will bring a brand from Tanya to that level where the country is recognised as far as sport is concerned,” said Tawanda Muzinda.
Online Reporter