Mat North games team to set up base in Dete

The competition will be held from 8-12 April in various venues at the coal mining town.
A selection meeting was held on Friday at Lwendulu Village. The state of preparedness was exposed as the organisers appeared not ready for the championships judging from their display on Friday.
“Our team will camp at Marist Brothers Secondary School in Dete and then depart for Hwange a day earlier for accreditation,” said the local organising committee general manager Jabulani Mpofu, who is also the provincial deputy education director.
He did not say when exactly the team would assemble at the school – another indicator that things were not going according to plan.
Six districts managed to come to Hwange with Nkayi being the only one that failed to make it. They cited transport problems.
So disorganised were the provincial championships that even ground marking was done in the morning. Some of the events were set to be held at Hwange Stadium which is under renovation.
As late as 1pm, a tractor was still busy cutting grass at the Old Stadium while there were no lines drawn for the tracks.
Due to the poor planning, some other disciplines like goalball, athletics, netball and all versions of soccer could not take place.
“Yes we did not have all the disciplines but I would want to assure everyone that by April all those things will be in place,” said Mpofu, who surprisingly did not seem to know that netball was part of the Paralympic Games.
Matabeleland North has always performed badly during the Paralympic Games and during the fourth edition in Chinhoyi last year the province came last after just a single silver and six bronze medals respectively.
Midlands province, an emerging powerhouse in both the Paralympic and Youth Games, came first with Bulawayo finishing an encouraging second, a few medals more than Masvingo who were third.
Some observers have blamed the poor performance of the province to too much red tape, non-involvement by experts and captains of industry with the province instead relying too much on education practitioners who usually come short in various areas because of limited resources and corporate appeal.
Ten provinces will converge in Hwange for the fifth edition of the Zimbabwe National Paralympic Games and the chief executive officer of the organising committee, Victor Rakabopa, said they were working flat out to ensure a memorable competition.
His committee has set up a budget of $300 000.
“We want to set a legacy in as far as these Games are concerned,” said Rakabopa during an interview on Friday evening.