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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
MINISTER of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Kirsty Coventry says they are excited about their bid to house the African Union Sports Council Region Five Regional Museum.

Coventry met with the AUSC Region Five chairman Dr Vetumbuavi Veii and chief executive officer Stanley Mutoya at her offices in Harare yesterday.

The pair is in the country for a two-day visit to induct the minister into the AUSC Region Five family and to see the bid done by Zimbabwe to house the regional museum.

The museum will comprise the entire history of the region.

“There is a lot of work ahead of us, but we are very excited . . . Sport in our region, in our continent can be used very successfully to rebuild a country and to rebuild not just a country, but to rebuild what we are seeing with our youths so that our young people can value themselves. For the last few weeks I have seen young people being used to do not very good things and I believe a lot of that is because they are a little bit lost and it’s up to us as a ministry, as Government to help them find that path of being successful and knowing that they have a lot of self-value.

“And that’s something very important when we are dealing with young people and sport,” said Coventry.

Veii said they are here to see if the environment will meet their requirements and expectations.

“The issue of establishing a museum has been ongoing for a long time.

“But we have not had one country which really confirmed to host it, so, therefore, we put up a bid for the different countries among the 10 members to see which one would be prepared to host it.

“Then Zimbabwe offered to host and Zambia also offered to host.

“Therefore, we are here to see the environment in Zimbabwe, whether it will meet the requirements and then after that we also will see what’s in Zambia.

“And then we will take it back to the executive committee for a decision to be taken where we are going to have this museum.

“The requirements really, we want to have a museum which is accessible to a lot of people. We don’t want it to be, for example, in an isolated area because we really want to market sports,” said Vetumbuavi.

Mutoya said the induction will see them taking the minister through the key fundamentals of the region.

“The secretary-general of the region is mandated to ensure that the ministers that join the region are eased into business of the region, so that they also appreciate and are able to run with the business from a policy point of view, a governance point of view and a programming point of view.

“So having welcomed honourable Dr Kirsty Coventry into the region, it is one of the task that the secretary-general has to do, that’s why I am here to then walk with the honourable minister on the key fundamentals of the region. So we do the induction for all the ministers,” said Mutoya. They are today set to tour the National Sports Stadium, which is earmarked for the regional museum.