admin
Senior Sports Reporter
Sports, Arts and Culture Deputy Minister Thabeth Malinga has joined the increasing calls for female athletes to be paid the same prize money as their male counterparts in sporting competitions.Speaking at the end of the All-Stakeholders Breakfast Workshop held at a Harare hotel on Tuesday, Malinga said she was shocked when during a conversation with swimming sensation and Olympic gold medalist Kirsty Coventry, she was told that female swimmers were paid less than their male colleagues.
“You know, when Kirsty told me that I was shocked and as a Ministry we are going to work hard in fighting against such injustices,” said Malinga, herself a former basketball player.
Malinga said there was no justification as to why female athletes should be paid less than their male counterparts. She said she was not going to go for three pointers in her fight against prize money imbalances but would go for “slam dunks”.
“The other fight that we as a Ministry will be engaged in will be the issue of recognising our own sporting, arts and cultural national heroes. Most of us, when we hear of national heroes we think of political or war heroes and that means people like Thabeth who never went to war will never be heroes, that is not right we need our own halls of fame in honour of our (sporting and arts) heroes,” said the Deputy Minister.
Online Reporter