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Ray Bande Mutare Bureau
PREPARATIONS for the 15th edition of the National Youth Games are in limbo amid stunning revelations that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education withdrew human and financial resources towards the annual multi sporting fête citing the National Annual Sports Science and Arts Festival commitments.

This comes with less than a week before the Games are expected to begin.

The 2017 edition of the National Youth Games was pencilled for August 17 to 27 in Hwange.

Team Manicaland was supposed to go into camp last Thursday in Mutare, but athletes and officials from schools were being stopped from travelling from their different districts to the provincial capital.

It is understood that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education wants its athletes and officials to prepare for the National Annual Sports Science and Arts Festival finals to be held in Harare in September.

Provincial Education Director for Manicaland, Edward Shumba, could neither confirm nor deny that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education will not release resources towards the annual event.

“That issue is now above me. You can contact the Permanent Secretary for the official position. I cannot give you a comment on it unless advised otherwise,” said Shumba.

Repeated efforts to get a comment from Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Sylvia Utete Masango were fruitless.

Similar efforts to get a comment from Minister of Sports and Recreation Makhosini Hlongwane were also fruitless as his mobile was unreachable.

Although Sports and Recreation Committee acting director General Joseph Muchechetere was not reachable for comment, SRC Coordinator for Manicaland Shupikai Berejena confirmed that an emergency meeting was convened in the capital last week to find solution to the deadlock.

He said they might end up depending on community based teams with the help of local Members of Parliament to fund the Games.

“We are informed that athletes and officials from schools have been stopped from coming for camp. We have also been made to understand that the parent ministry — the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education — has ordered schools to focus on NASSAF rather than the National Youth Games.

“As we speak there is a high-level inter-ministerial meeting in Harare to solve the issue. We might be forced to use community-based teams if the impasse persists,” he said.

Ironically, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education collects money from levies paid by parents in the name of Youth Games.

According to Circular 1 of 2016, which this newspaper is in possession of, the Primary and Secondary Education Ministry collects a certain amount from Better Schools Programme, National Youth Games, National Paralympic Games as well as Youth Education through Sport.

The National Youth Games used to have eight sporting codes, mainly for the Under-18s, but this has been extended to cover the Under-23s from uniformed forces, tertiary institutions, the schools platform as well as the community sports platform.

Team Manicaland only won the 13th edition since the launch of the Games in 2003.