NAPH in passport furore

Sports Correspondent
CONCERN has been raised over a National Association of Primary School Heads policy that saw some athletes being denied the opportunity to compete at last week’s NAPH national athletics meeting in Hwange because they did not have passports. Scores of athletes who despite meeting qualification standards were told they would not be competing in any event because they did not have the travelling documents.

The NAPH Track and Field Championships were held from 26 March to 28 March at the Colliery Stadium and were used to select the team that will represent Zimbabwe at the Confederation of Schools Sports Association of Southern Africa scheduled for Botswana later this month.
Some of the teachers who attended the qualifiers said travelling documents should not come first before the competition.

Speaking on condition of anonymity a teacher revealed that athletes were “ambushed” with the new policy because they were told just before competing that they should produce travelling documents before entering the track.

“The policy itself is flawed because you can’t say someone who is talented should not take part in an event just because of the passport; what should  happen is that if an athlete excels she or he can be assisted to acquire a passport and if she or he fails to get it then we can take the second best.

“What made matters worse in Hwange is that provinces were allowed to bring athletes and then were told at the last minute to produce passports. Maybe if we had been told earlier it would have been better,” said the source.

This paper could, however, not ascertain the exact number of athletes who were barred from taking part but Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South were hard hit, Bulawayo also had five athletes who did not feature in the games.

NAPH head-in-charge of athletics, Enias Nhoro, however, said it was a policy that all provinces were aware of and hence should have prepared themselves before the competition.

He said the decision was made at executive level last year and communicated to all provinces.
“We introduced it because the meeting in Hwange was for selecting athletes who will travel outside the country hence our insistence on them having passports. In previous instances those who would have qualified without travel documents failed to get them in time or would just disappear. We feel it (passport) is an important document that every child should have,’’ said Nhoro.

“We also considered the time frame because we had less than four weeks left, the period it takes to apply and get a passport, before our scheduled departure for Botswana on 22 April and the country (Botswana) does not accept emergency travel documents,” said Nhoro.

Some teachers said the policy was likely to impact negatively on the performance of the country’s team at the COSSASA meeting that kicks off on 23 April and runs for three days.

“This means we are not travelling with the best athletes but those who have travel documents. Maybe we could be leaving behind athletes that are going to win us gold and instead of assisting them we are suppressing their talent. Some parents are finding it difficult to pay fees and then we force them to take passports for their children,” added the concerned teacher.

A sports master at another school said there was a prevalence of child headed families who cannot afford such things as acquiring a passport.
He said NAPH was shooting itself in the foot because it was now failing to nurture talent.

“A child comes from a poor family but can run but then we bar him from taking part because he does not have a passport, which means he will be left wallowing in that poverty. Why can’t NAPH make efforts to assist these pupils after realising they are talented rather than marginalising them?” added the source.

Nhoro, who is also the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe first vice-president responsible for development, said it was unfortunate other provinces had not made efforts to get passports for their athletes as they could have found ways of getting the funds to assist the pupils acquire the documents.

He said other provinces had to approach their public representatives, pooled funds together or approached philanthropic people in their areas who assisted the talented pupils.