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Andrew Langa

Bothwell Mahlengwe
PEOPLE advocated for a Sports Ministry because sport, the world over, is a multi-billion-dollar business. Sport is a huge source of employment and a major contributor to the fiscus in most developed countries. 

In Africa, countries like Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia and South Africa have benefited immensely from sport.

Besides it being a source of employment and foreign currency, it contributes immensely to tourism when top foreign teams and nations come to play in your country.

I want to believe that when the Government created a separate Sport, Art and Culture Ministry, it had all these benefits in mind.

Another important benefit of sport, which is normally overlooked, is its effect on a person’s health and well-being. It might be too early to judge the effectiveness of a separate sports ministry seeing that it is only a little over a year old.

However, an assessment of Zimbabwean sport in general reveals a sorry picture — our sport is in the intensive care unit, slowly approaching extinction. Soon, at this rate, Zimbabwe will be deleted from world sports map.

In cricket we used to compete at the highest level. Now we have turned into punching bags. We don’t even have a bowling coach and the triangular we are hosting has turned into a contest between Australia and South Africa.

We are just making up the numbers.

A sport that used to be an envy of many, which used to getting sponsorship on its terms, has nothing in its coffers and battles rage between the players and their leaders.

Rugby is thriving at schools level. We have so many festivals hosted by the so-called Group A schools. Even international scouts grace these festivals.

At national level, it is a different story. The Sables are not what they used to be during the Victor Olonga and Brighton Chivandire era.
Recent failures by the Sables and the Young Sables point to stunning institutional decay.

All the talent that we are producing changes allegiance at the first opportunity. We have lost talent to the likes of USA and South Africa.

I was pained when one day we argued about Tendai Mtawarira’s nationality. It’s good the new constitution provides for dual citizenship.

We used to have the Black siblings in tennis but we have been slowly and surely sliding down the world rankings and we have disappeared from the main Davis Cup show.

The same goes for swimming.

After Kirsty Coventry, you wonder if there is still swimming in this country. We only watch it at schools. One would be forgiven if they don’t know the people who run the sport in this country.

In hockey we had the Golden Girls and that was it. No attempt was made to build from their exploits.

Again you see hockey at schools level and at national level it is non-existent.

The 1995 All-Africa Games had beautiful infrastructure built for hockey in Harare, Bulawayo and Chitungwiza. All has been reduced to places for church functions and you wonder why.

We used to be a thriving athletics nation. Students would win scholarships to go and study abroad because of their athletics exploits. We used to compete favourably at international level. We had sprinters, middle and long distance runners.

Now, we have no one who can represent us with pride and hope to win a medal at a major athletics event.

The only thriving sporting disciplines are karate, boxing and golf.

Unfortunately, the first two receive no recognition from the authorities. Interestingly, that’s where we have world champions in the form of Sensei Sam Muripo and Charles Manyuchi.

Why we have chosen to turn our backs on these disciplines is anyone’s guess. In golf, we have Brendon de Jonge but he is still to win his breakthrough tournament on the US PGA Tour.

No business function can be complete without a golf day.

Executives and enthusiasts are spending most of their weekends in the golf course. Why then are we failing to take advantage of that and run proper golf academies for our kids for them to compete at the highest level in the future? More than half of Zimbabwe’s population has interest in soccer. Unfortunately, it has been the biggest let down. As I write the beautiful game is as good as dead in this country – a broke national association, non-participating national teams, a disjointed board and self-centred leadership has been the order of the day for our beautiful game.

A lot has been said about the state of our football and need I say more.

Interestingly, the Minister of Sport, Andrew Langa, continues to back those in charge of our national game. Maybe there is something that he knows that we don’t.

It is clear that the nation’s leadership did the right thing and created a stand-alone Sport, Arts and Culture ministry.

We need to revamp our sport after years of decline. We need a ministry that offers direction and a close monitoring role in all our sporting disciplines. Years have gone without accountability on the part of our sport administrators and it’s time the rot stops.

The benefits of a thriving sporting nation are well known, be it financial, employment creation, health, sport tourism and the like.
We need our kids to look at sport as a career not just extra curriculum activities that end the day they leave school.

Minister Langa and your ministry, you have a big job on your plate and the nation is relying on you.

Even the foundation for Tourism and Hospitality Minister Eng Walter Mzembi’s 2034 World Cup dream rests with your ministry.

• Bothwell Mahlengwe is a banker and former Premiership footballer and can be contacted, for feedback, on the email – [email protected].