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Grace Chingoma Sports Reporter
Sports and Recreation Minister Makhosini Hlongwane says the Government will reward the Mighty Warriors for making history by becoming the first Zimbabwean national football team to qualify for the Olympics Game yesterday.

The Mighty Warriors booked their place to next year’s Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when they beat African heavyweights Cameroon 1-0, at Rufaro.

They join swimming icon Kirsty Coventry, long distance runner Wirimai Juwawo and two rowers Micheen Thornycroft and Peter Purcell-Gilpin, who have already qualified for the Olympic Games next year.

The new minister, who had to postpone his trip to Switzerland where he is set to present the country’s appeal against FIFA’s decision to expel the Warriors from the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, yesterday said he will discuss possible rewards for the Mighty Warriors with his colleagues in cabinet.

Today, Hlongwane is set to host the team for lunch.

“I am going to be meeting with my colleagues and we will mobilise to make sure that (the Mighty Warriors qualification) doesn’t go unrecognised,” said Hlongwane.

“This is very important for us because football is an important part of our economy. Football is a huge industry in this country from an employment point of view but from also a point of view of making sure that social services are provided in the most remarkable way as demonstrated today.

“The whole country is happy. I think the Mighty Warriors have demonstrated they have what it takes to make it.

“Going forward, we now have to make sure that we plan properly to make sure that the Mighty Warriors are going to represent our country in Rio de Janeiro and play well and play to win.”

He said they will battle to ensure that football rises again after the sport was almost drowned by a lengthy period dominated by negativity.

“Like I said before, this is something we have set out to do, to say we need to change the headlines at the back page of the newspaper,” said Hlongwane.

“When you pick up the newspaper tomorrow morning, you will have a very good headline — Zimbabwe, finally, has been able to break the jinx — and this is important, especially being done by the Mighty Warriors.

“The girl child has aptly demonstrated that they are able to do it, sometimes even better than the men. Now the onus is on us to put all our energy behind the Warriors to make sure that they defeat Lesotho both in Bulawayo and Maseru so that they make it to Rwanda (CHAN finals).

“I was supposed to be travelling to Zurich today, I said I am not going to do that, I want to be at the stadium, to make sure that I witness history, but also to rally behind the girls and make sure that their collective energy is deployed into making sure that they win, that is exactly what has happened.”

In a short statement, he released after the game, the minister acknowledged that the support they have granted the team in this short period has contributed to this success.

“The drought of happiness is gone. Today we say death to mediocrity. Football has reinvented happiness for us all as Zimbabweans.

“The mighty sword of the Mighty Warriors has delivered the killer blow to the Cameroonians. This is what happens when a team gets support,” read the statement.

Also on hand to congratulate the team was Sports Commission acting board chairperson Edward Siwela, who paid tribute to the technical team for crafting the victory.

“This was a marvellous achievement for Zimbabwe. The girls did the nation proud,” said Siwela.

“It was always going to be a very difficult match but I think the girls and the technical team seem to have prepared well, well enough to ensure that we secured the much-needed win that the country wanted for us to proceed to the Rio Olympics Games.

“As SRC we are very proud of the girls, we are very proud of the technical team and would like to congratulate Zimbabwe for this major achievement in the history of sport in Zimbabwe and, in particular, of soccer.”

Former women’s football chairperson, Mavis Gumbo, who revived the Mighty Warriors when she took charge of the game five years ago and also cheered the team at Rufaro yesterday, backed Zimbabwe to make a big impression in Rio de Janeiro.

“I am just happy for the team. They really deserve it because they have been working hard since 2010. I am so happy for them and I just wish they also do us proud when they go to Brazil,” said Gumbo. ZIFA chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze said football was the winner.

“We are proud of the girls. They have done the nation proud and we believe that they will take us all the way to the Holy Grail in Rio.

“We would like to thank the parents, the clubs and all the fans who made this possible and we say ‘Go Mighty Warriors Go!’

“I believe this is the right tonic for local football given the challenges we are facing but the girls said today let’s put aside whatever is not excellency and concentrate on excellency,” said Mashingaidze.