Chronicle Editor
Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
“THESE assessments are important as the approval to resume sporting activities is based on the premise that the approved sports codes will implement laid down guidelines and protocols as set by the World Health Organisation and the Covid-19 regulations on the prevention and containment of the pandemic.
“The aim is to ensure the safety of athletes, officials and the wider community,” Sports and Recreation Commission director-general Sebastian Garikai told our sister paper Sunday Mail last month.
The paper reported that national sports associations (NSAs) had been briefed on the consequences of violating protocols.
Garikai indicated that the SRC would not hesitate to ask the police to shut down any sport or recreational organisation that violates laid down Covid-19 guidelines.
It was the duty of every NSA to ensure that its members operate within the set parameters for resumption.
This shows that the SRC is taking Covid-19 prevention measures seriously and is aware of the deadly effects of failure to abide by laid down protocols.
The entire country may find itself back in a hard lockdown if people continue to turn a blind eye on sport bodies that deliberately violate given guidelines.
On Africa Day it was disturbing to witness a netball tournament being held at Sobukhazi High School as if all Covid-19 restrictions had been lifted.
Players and officials disregarded standard operating procedures, which remain mandatory for every sanctioned sporting activity.
It was sad that one of the sponsors of the event took exception to being questioned about the non-adherence to health protocols.
“We are not the only ones that have had such games. We have been seeing soccer matches throughout the city almost every weekend, yet nothing is being done to them. Why should it be us only? Just drive around the suburbs on weekends and you will see for yourselves that social football is back to normal, and even netball,” she said.
And she was not bluffing at all. It’s now business as usual on the social sport front, particularly football.
Every weekend social football is played all over the city, with organisers and participants seemingly oblivious of the protocols.
Most of these games are played in the vicinity of police stations, with officers doing nothing about it.
Social football leagues are in full swing and the SRC seems powerless to stop them because their matches go on unhindered.
It’s sad that while the Premier Soccer League strictly follows the standard operating procedure by ensuring that players, officials, including referees, and even journalists produce negative Covid-19 certificates less than 48 hours old, social football organisers and players could care less.
They simply turn up and play their matches as if everything is back to normal and they have never been bothered by anyone, including venue owners.
Such delinquent behaviour must be curtailed so that the country is not forced to relive the January scenario when a hard lockdown was imposed due to a sudden jump in infections caused by carelessness on the part of citizens.
Covid-19 cases had been on the decrease for months and looked as though full resumption of sporting activities was on the cards.
If these unsanctioned and uncontrolled sporting activities continue unabated, all gains that have been achieved might come to naught.
A number of European countries are seeing an upsurge in Covid-19 cases, forcing them to revise lockdown restrictions.
Despite being the world’s biggest sporting showpiece, the Olympic Games set for Tokyo, Japan, continue facing stiff opposition from a cross section of concerned Japanese citizens and organisations that are calling for them to be postponed or totally cancelled.
All these calls are coming despite the fact that organisers of the Games continue assuring Japanese citizens, athletes and officials that they will be safe because all precautionary measures have been put in place.
If games of such magnitude are not 100 percent safe, what can make our own uncontrolled sporting activities immune to Covid-19?
Covid-19 is real and not a mirage.
The SRC provincial coordinators should be vigilant and not react to media reports about violations. They don’t even have to investigate but visit venues where social sport was staged before outbreak of Covid-19, and they’ll find the games in full motion.
If provincial SRC coordinators do their work diligently, a lot of these violations wouldn’t be taking place.
These games are continuing because nothing has been done to those that organise and play in the tournaments.
Without violators being made an example, the violations will continue, making a mockery of the gains made in the fight against the pandemic.
Online Reporter