adminYOU know it’s Christmas time when the days are longer and the nights are shorter, when the air gets nippier and the traffic gets even nastier.You know it’s Christmas when your eyes light up at the sight of the holiday décor on the windows of chain stores in town and the lights as you enter each town and city get more and more dazzling.
You know it’s Christmas in Bulawayo and surrounding areas when there is a sudden influx of GP registered cars from down South, when our brothers and sisters come home for the break to enjoy with family and friends.
This year, it would turn out to be a different Christmas for football lovers with the Warriors getting a fair share of the cake from the national budget. After persistent calls from stakeholders for Government to come up with a separate ministry for Sport which is divorced from the equally demanding Ministry of Education, President Mugabe gave an early Christmas present to sport as well as arts lovers when he appointed Andrew Langa as the first Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture.
There was so much excitement at the coming up of the new ministry, and of course, a lot of expectations too. In a show of commitment by Government to make sure the Ministry lives true to its mandate, Langa’s Ministry was allocated $10 450 000 from the national budget announced by Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa on Thursday.
The money is not only for sports, but will also cater for arts and culture activities but what is important is that the country now has a separate purse from Government to assist in the development of the game.
From the budget announced, $1, 595 million will be set aside for the Sports and Recreation Commission, a further $3,5 million earmarked for construction works and $600 000 set aside for the African Union Sports Council Region Five Under-20 Youth Games to be played in Bulawayo next year.
There were some people who doubted if Langa would live up to challenges of the sports ministry when he was appointed, but a few months down the line, he has shown that he has what it takes to drive sports as well as arts and culture forward.
He has not minced his words on the need for Government to assist teams like Dynamos and How Mine who are due to participate in continental assignment, saying the clubs had to engage his ministry so as to find a way in which they share the burden, calling the corporate world never to abandon teams that carry the nation’s hopes on the international front.
The minister has also chosen not to get himself entangled in name calling affecting the number one sport – football- but instead, has chosen to focus on taking the Warriors to the next level.
He told our sister paper, The Herald this week that national teams should never go hungry while in camp again. He said while the nation was facing challenges, it was unacceptable for the country’s flagship sporting team to find itself in a situation where their meals are not guaranteed, amid reports that coach Ian Gorowa had to use his personal savings to buy dinner on Wednesday night for the players. The Warriors are in camp preparing for the Chan tournament to start in South Africa in two weeks time.
“As Government we would like to say that it’s unfortunate that we had an incident where the national coach, Ian Gorowa, ended up feeding the Warriors. While we are facing some challenges as a nation, there is no way that this should be allowed to come to a situation where we end up with the national coach having to buy food for the national team players.
“I’m not pointing a finger at anyone but I just want to assure the nation that this will not be allowed to happen again, and as for this morning (Thursday), I have been in touch with Zifa and the Sports Commission discussing this issue and measures will be put in place to ensure that this does not happen again.”
Last month, Langa met sports editors in Harare, together with his deputy Tabetha Kanengoni-Malinga and said administrators would be asked to account for their time and resources while in office.
“I want to assure the nation that our team will definitely deliver. We have been consulting with those fundis in cricket, those fundis in soccer. We have the zeal, the wish as a ministry to ensure that our people in Zimbabwe get what they want in sport. We want to move away from this thing of taking sport as entertainment but as something that can create employment and deliver food on the table for our athletes. I don’t think that we will fail the country,” he was quoted as saying in the media.
After chipping in with his funds, Gorowa joined a list of the likes of Peter Ndlovu and Benjani Mwaruwari who have used their personal money to bail out the national team when duty called when they were still part of the Warriors set up. There are other individuals like Frank Valdermarca who, like current Zifa president, would use his personal resources to fly the national team for assignments because of the perennial financial problems at Zifa. But the truth is the Warriors are not a personal baby, but a national project and they should remain as such.
The Sports ministry is seized with a vision to create an active and winning nation, and mobilising resources and creating opportunities for Zimbabweans to participate in sport. The ministry is not there to control sporting organisations, but to create an enabling environment and legal frameworks that will take the country forward in as far sports is concerned.
Admittedly, a number of companies with Government influence have been involved in funding some sporting competitions, and we believe more is yet to come now that there is a ministry that will make sure that what ever is poured in as sponsorship is not abused.
It is about time Zifa changed from being a begging bowl association, and at least change from being an organisation that is led and funded by its president Cuthbert Dube. Once other players come in to support the game, then people can start demanding results from Dube’s board because resources would have been availed to them.
With all things being equal, the Ministry of Sports should have called for heads to roll at Zifa after the national team coach bought supper for his players to save them from sleeping on empty stomachs, but it becomes difficult to do that because Dube will say I have been financing this and that for the past four years or so on my own.
It can only happen with the Warriors that a team captain, in this case, Peter and Benjani, or a coach, Gorowa, dig into their pockets to feed players while on national duty. That “kiya-kiya” kind of business has been left for long and it’s time it is brought to a stop. There is no reason why the team should go to camp when all logistics have been sorted out.
By the time the players are called into camp, their transport, accommodation and food issues at the very least should have been sorted out, followed by the issue of allowances and other incentives to win the matches.
There have been concerns over the kind of accommodation that the players have been using, particularly recently when they were in Bulawayo for a friendly against Mozambique. Those who have travelled with teams across the continent know that not all countries offer five-star hotels for teams, as long as the team is given decent accommodation, it’s fine.
This is not to suggest that the teams should be booked at some dingy place, but as a nation, we should learn to live within our means.
What is encouraging is also to note that Government is exploring other avenues to attract businesses to partner with sport. The Ministry has proposed tax incentives for companies that sponsor sport in a policy document that is expected to be launched in the first quarter of next year.
This was said by the ministry’s Deputy Minister Kanengoni-Malinga while responding to a question from parliamentarian Tapiwa Matangaidze on Government policy in reviving the fortunes of sport in the country recently. Matangaidze, a former Premier Soccer League chairman, is now the Member of Parliament for Shurugwi South, and has indicated that he would try to use his presence in the August house to push for reforms and growth in the national sports.
“It is with this view that my ministry will be proposing tax incentives that sponsor sport, arts and any cultural activities,” said Kanengoni-Malinga, adding that they were carrying out consultations among various stakeholders to come up with a holistic sports policy which will be completed next year.
She said some of the issues her ministry was looking at to raise revenue for sponsoring sporting and cultural activities include lobbying Government to deduct a fee from proceeds of lotteries and granting them a casino licence. She proposed that sporting, arts and cultural activities equipment be imported into the country duty free.
The Warriors will take a short break to be with their families for Christmas before they leave for South Africa and we wish them well. For now, we say have a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous sporting New Year.
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