Chronicle Editor
Nkosilathi Sibanda
ON any given day at Lobengula Youth Centre, a group of youngsters go to the gym facility to pump some steel.
This is not just an ordinary group. There is a mix of talented football players who have sights on turning professional some day. After spending a good two hours early in the morning, they quit having serviced their muscles and egos. They will meet again the next day.
A banter usually ensues as they depart. They walk but with no intention to go anywhere, for there is nothing more to do than while away time and talking about anything that comes to their mind.
Some would want to play a bit of football but the nearby pitch is rugged. In fact, they have no match balls and other equipment to start with. Across town, at the city’s famed home of rugby, two boys who play for a local school are disturbed on their usual training ritual by the swelling crowd of beer drinkers who come for a braai and music. They have to find quieter days for their sessions.
It would seem that as many sporting facilities in the city are no longer “sport” friendly. Drinking, substance and drug abuse they have become havens for. These facilities, owned by the Bulawayo City Council, that have retarded their yesteryear tag as centres of sports excellence include Queens Sports Club, Hartsfield Rugby Ground, Parkview, Bulawayo Athletic Club (BAC) and Busters Sports Club.
For years residents have watched and done nothing to avert the loss of purpose that has met with the sports centres. In other areas, sports halls and grounds are hired out to churches. It is a well shared notion among many residents that sports must drive the recreational side of these facilities. Even sports psychologists think so too.
These sports centres, like other facilities of their kind in the city, hold an enormous history of having been springboards of success to stardom for as many athletes. Faces glow in awe when elders tell narrations of the once beautiful city with sound community sports clubs that offered the best that any young athlete would wish for.
From being spoilt for choice in boxing, football, squash, tennis, they would switch to darts, baseball, netball, volleyball and bowling. Such was the purpose of these sports clubs.
Although facilities in the high-density areas had limited equipment to offer compared to those found across town, the goal was the same; recreation, wellness and grooming towards podium positions in major national and international events.
People met there to share their passion and also to discuss politics in the colonial era under the disguise of sporting engagement. The list of the facilities around town boasts of Queens Sports Club that housed an array of sports codes. At some stage, it housed a fledging cricket, hockey, football, rugby and squash.
It has however, been turned into a top international cricket venue while the squash section is a damp squib of itself not worthy of a sentence more. Not so long ago it was staging some of the matches of Zimbabwe squash’s flagship event, the Zimbabwe Open.
When the City of Bulawayo built the facilities, the aim was for recreation, wellness, socialising and sport towards excellence.
Sadly, recent years have seen the once vibrant Bulawayo inter-sports club sports competitions evaporate into Better Bar Facility Contests with courts and pitches in a deplorable state.
BAC, Hartsfield, Highlanders Clubhouse, Busters, Cricket Excellence Centre, Bulawayo Chiefs Village, Crescent and Parkview have outbid themselves in the bragging rights for pubs and not for sport.
Very few are as active in the provision of as many sporting codes as BAC who have cricket, hockey, tennis, squash, bowling and volleyball activity happening every other day. Others are left with just one or two token sports.
With the increase of alcohol activity, kids are being pushed away to mischief or hang on and get attracted to bad habits. Recreation or sporting clubs lack basic equipment and many have been using stuff that has been there since the 1970s. Tattered boxing bags, bicycles without pedals, uneven weights are what one finds at the old clubs.
The Bulawayo City Council which used to be solely in charge of the youth clubs providing youth leaders, and sporting and gym equipment has lagged behind in its support. A community youth development advocate in the city, Mduduzi Moyo said there was a need for engagement between residents, institutions and council.
“It is known that most facilities are council property, with some owned by teams and community clubs. We have to map the way on how best to balance the provision of sport infrastructure and use for recreational activities. A simple understanding of what has to be done and going back to what these facilities were for in the first place. If we are honest with ourselves as a society, we shouldn’t be proud of having sports clubs turned into full-time entertainment zones. It means we are killing the future. I interact with young, talented sports players who feel betrayed. They are from disadvantaged areas and have nowhere to call a home of sports. It’s a shame,” said Moyo.
While concerns mount, there are reasons that have arisen as to why entertainment supersedes sport.
City Fathers are on record saying the council has no adequate financial resources to run the facilities. This points out to the lease agreements given. But most of the clubs survived on membership subscriptions as members valued their standards and dug into their pockets to keep their social places in a state they wanted them to be.
In 2020 BCC noted: “It was noted that council-leased sports clubs were engaging in unauthorised activities such as live shows and ‘tshisa nyama’ (braai spots) which caused nuisances for residents in the neighbourhoods of the facilities.”
However, not much has changed since then, instead many more have been spruced up for pub business and less of sports encouraged.
“Some of these facilities would have long been white elephants, had we not taken up the offer from council. We pay our dues to promote recreational activities for the people. We would want to fully support the sport as well, if resources permit. There is no harm in operating these centres in a diverse way that promotes growth. I feel the issue has to be viewed differently,” said one leaseholder who begged not to be named.
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