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THE African Union Sport Council Region 5 has postponed the 5th edition of the Regional Annual Sport Awards (RASA) which was to be hosted in Eswatini on May 26.
The decision followed the AUSC Region 5 Troika of Ministers’ decision to put all activities planned for the first six months of the year on hold due to the coronavirus outbreak.
This was resolved in the first Troika of Ministers virtual meeting held on April 2 via a digital platform.
A new date for the event will be considered once the coronavirus pandemic is declared over.
Confirming the decision to postpone the RASA, the chief executive of the AUSC Region 5, Stanley Mutoya of Zimbabwe, said: “The Troika of Ministers took a decision to halt all activities of the Region in the first half of the year due to the crisis caused by the Coronavirus in the world and in particular in our region.
“With most of our member countries having introduced responsive measures that include strict social distancing and travel restrictions, the ministers complimented government efforts by postponing all sports activities of the Region which includes the RASA.”
The RASA is an event that celebrates excellence and outstanding performances by sportsmen and sportswomen.
It aims to motivate and celebrate the iconic contributions by our sportsmen and sportswomen to the development of sport every year.
The event is open only to those countries that host their own National Annual Sports Awards as winners of these national awards become automatic nominees for the RASA.
All 10 member countries now host their own National Sports Awards up from six that were hosting such by 2016 when the RASA was introduced. The inaugural edition of RASA was held in 2016 in South Africa who went on to host the first three editions of the event before the awards moved to Windhoek, Namibia, in 2019. The event has grown in popularity over the years and has continued to attract attention from athletes, administrators and technical officials.
Sports icons in the Region such as the current Zimbabwe Minister of Youth, Sports and Recreation, Kirsty Coventry, South African athletes Caster Semenya and Wayde Van Niekerk are some of the cast of “Galactico” of stars that have gone on to win gongs at the RASA since its inception.
“Given the postponement of the event and the fact that the voting process had not yet commenced, we will have to reconsider the event delivery roadmap to recast the process once we have a clearer picture of the status of the novel coronavirus pandemic,” Mutoya said.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter