Online Reporter
Onward Gangata-Zimpapers Sports Hub
NEWLY appointed Sport and Recreation Commission director-general Allen Mavunga has outlined his vision for sport in the country, highlighting that commercialisation, digitisation and infrastructure will be among his priorities.
The SRC supremo is on a whirlwind familiarisation tour of the country’s 10 provinces.
And on Tuesday, he visited Gweru before heading to Bulawayo the following day.
Mavunga preached the same gospel of the key elements to be attended to during his tenure, which began at the start of this month.
He becomes the next substantive director-general of the country’s sport regulatory body following the departure of Eltah Nengomasha in September last year.
Lawyer Peter Mudzimiri had been the acting director-general since then.
During his nationwide tour Mavunga will engage with stakeholders to familiarise himself with the various sports actors and operating terrain.
In Gweru, he met the provincial sports development committee, SRC staff and stakeholders, while in Bulawayo he continued with his engagement drive, meeting various people involved with provincial, regional and some national sports bodies.
Mavunga spoke about the need for associations to be compliant with the country’s sports regulatory body.
The state of sport in the country is riddled with a plethora of challenges that mainly border around governance issues and facilities.
One of the major issues that is troubling the SRC is the non-compliance by some national associations.
Lack of modern infrastructure and funding challenges are high on the list of concerns for most codes in the country.
There is some hope that with a substantive director-general in place, the Sports Commission could drive the improvement of infrastructure more vigorously.
In detailing his vision, Mavunga said it would be anchored on four key pillars.
“Mainly my vision for sports in the country will be anchored on four pillars: Infrastructure development; Governance; digitisation of sport and the fourth being commercialisation of the industry,” he said.
“These four pillars are the ones we are going to be using to shape what the SRC is going to be like going forward.
“As the DG, I want to help every sport code to be capacitated, to look for funding and bring the corporate world onto your doorstep,” he said.
Sport, the world over, has become a billion-dollar industry, sadly Zimbabwe is yet to professionalise and develop a functional sports industry.
Mavunga pointed out that it is one area he will prioritise during his tenure where he expects to embrace digitisation as part of sports administration.
“As a country, it is high time that we digitise our sports so that we can be able to access information about our athletes and track them with ease.
“We want to reach a level where each sport code has a database and tracking system which makes it easy to track performances, the moment we have that database in our hands, it is easy for us to commercialise and approach corporates to work with us.
“It is disheartening to see sports associations always going around with a begging bowl, there is so much potential in sport, if we put our things in order, we can be able to unlock that potential and realise the full value of this multi-million industry,”
He also revealed that the SRC will hold an all-stakeholders conference in early July to ensure they are apprised of the commission’s vision and expectations.
A product of the National Youth Games, Mavunga spoke about the need to revive the event, which was bowled out by the Covid-19 pandemic and somehow never bounced back even as life returned to normalcy.
An ex-basketball player, Mavunga was part of the pioneering group of 2003 when the National Youth Games started before he won a scholarship to study and play in the US.
Now the Sports Commission are looking to mark the return of the Games by hosting the event in Marondera this year.
Mavunga also emphasised the importance of the Games and how sport had transformed his life and that of many others.
