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Ray Bande Mutare Bureau
MUTARE Boys High School was a hive of activity this weekend with more than 20 schools from different parts of Manicaland converging for the Bob ‘93 sports gala being run under the 21st February Movement banner.

The provincial Bob ’93 sports festivals are being held to celebrate the life of President Robert Mugabe. The multi sporting discipline event, which was traditionally held in Harare and Mashonaland East since its inception in 2013, is now spreading to all provinces across the country. Organiser Tendai “T-Buns’’ Zhakata said they will be having a similar event in all the 10 provinces until November 11 when they have the last one at Kwekwe High and Regina Mundi in Midlands.

“We started this in Harare and Mashonaland East only. However, we saw the need to spread to all other parts of the country since the President is not only for the two provinces that we talked about.

“This is why we are here in Manicaland today.

“We started with basketball only simply because the First Family gave us Robert Junior who played basketball but we latter thought of incorporating all other sporting disciplines,” he said.

Zhakata said the idea behind is to help nurture talent while inculcating discipline and hard work among youths.

“The whole idea is about nurturing talent while inculcating discipline and hard work among youths. We want these youths to be responsible leaders in future just like our President.

“At the same time we are nurturing and marketing the sporting talent in the country. The last time we took a team to Germany and four youths were chosen to take up scholarships there. We also have Vitalis Chikoko who is now playing basketball in France through this initiative.

“We believe we can improve the lives of a good number of our youths through this initiative,” said Zhakata. Schools that participated in the event in Manicaland competed in football, rugby, basketball, volleyball, netball, chess and handball. Mutare Boys High got the better of Hartzel 3-1 in the boys volleyball final match while Nyashanu High beat Bonda Girls High 3-0 in the girls category.

St Mathias Tsonzo emerged the handball girls champions after beating Nyatate High 4-3 while Chipinge’s Gaza High School beat Mutare Boys High 8-5 to win the boys handball competition.

Mutare Boys High rugby team defeated Nyamauru 15-5 to win the boys contest while their football team won 9-8 on penalties against St Augustines. St Columbus won the girls football competition after dismissing Clare 1-0.