Online Reporter
George Maponga
Masvingo Bureau
LOCAL authorities have been challenged to develop sporting infrastructure in their areas to add impetus to the Second Republic’s drive to promote social development, economic growth and youth empowerment in line with the quest to make Zimbabwe an upper-middle-income economy by the year 2030.
Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister Anselem Sanyatwe yesterday said President Mnangagwa’s administration had identified development of sporting infrastructure as a key catalyst to engender development that was in sync with Vision 2030.
Minister Sanyatwe was speaking during the commissioning of multi-purpose courts for volleyball, netball, basketball and tennis built by Masvingo City Council in Mucheke suburb. The multipurpose courts can also be used by persons living with disabilities.
He said that the newly-developed Zimbabwe Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture Roadmap would usher a new era in sport as it, among other things, provided a strategic framework for implementing Government priorities anchored on Vision 2030 and the National Development Strategy 2.
“The roadmap seeks to accelerate infrastructure development by ensuring the availability of standard sporting facilities across all districts, promote mass participation in schools and communities, strengthen talent identification and athlete development pathways, improve governance within sporting institutions, and establish a sustainable high-performance system capable of producing athletes who can compete successfully at regional, continental and international levels,” said Minister Sanyatwe.
The Minister challenged other local authorities countrywide to take a leaf from Masvingo City Council and aggressively move to develop sporting infrastructure. The Second Republic wanted implementation of projects that spoke to Vision 2030.
In his address, Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Ezra Chadzamira commended the new development, saying it was part of the fruits from the Second Republic’s call to local authorities to be hotspots of socio-economic transformation in their areas of jurisdiction.
Masvingo Town Clerk Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa assured the Government that his local authority will continue to allocate resources to the development of sporting infrastructure as the country’s oldest town races to become an industrialised metropolitan area by 2030.
