Online Reporter
Onward Gangata and Lovemore Dube
NEWLY appointed Sport and Recreation Commission (SRC) Director General, Allen Mavunga has outlined his vision for sport in the country highlighting that commercialisation, digitization and infrastructure will be among his priorities.
The SRC supremo visited Gweru on Tuesday and was in Bulawayo yesterday preaching the same gospel of the key elements to be attended to during his tenure.
His tour of the provinces is part of his nationwide tour and engagement 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 yesterday he continued with his engagement drive meeting various people involved with provincial, regional and some national sports bodies.
Mavunga assumed leadership of the SRC at the beginning of this month replacing Eltah Nengomasha who resigned from the role at the end of September last year.
He also took time to speak about compliance with the country’s sports regulatory body, the SRC.
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 national associations.
Lack of modern infrastructure as well as funding challenges are high on the list of concerns for most codes in the country.
The coming in of a substantive director general has created an atmosphere of expectation in the sporting fraternity.
Mavunga detailed his vision which he said hinges on four key pillars.
“Mainly my vision for sports in the country will be anchored on four pillars: Infrastructure development; Governance; Digitization 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 in Gweru.
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 and every 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 commercialize and approach corporates to work with us,” he pointed out
“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 realize the full value of this multi-million industry,”
He also revealed that the SRC will hold an all stakeholders conference in early July to be on the same page with all relevant authorities.
Another subject he spoke about are the National Youth Games, once an annual event which had seized to operate during the Covid-19 era.
He was part of the pioneering group of 2003 in the Youth Games going all the way to get a scholarship to study and play in the United States of America.
Marondera will play host to this year’s returning Games.
He emphasised the importance of the Games and how sport had transformed his life and that of many others.
