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Fungai Lupande Mashonaland Central Bureau
MASHONALAND Central provincial sports development committee, the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) and the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture recently conducted consultative visits in all the province’s eight districts to create sub-committees to revitalise sports.

SRC provincial coordinator Mr James Maganga said this follows the drop in standards of sports and recreation activities in the province.

He said the drop was evident in the reduction of teams that participated at national events and lack of outstanding performances in the past five years.

“We decided to visit all the eight districts to meet stakeholders and to hear the state of sports in their respective districts,” said Mr Maganga. “We want to hear their challenges, strengths, opportunities and their recommendations.

“We are registering wards, districts and provincial sports development committees, including sports clubs. This will provide us with a database of sports structures. We need to strengthen sports clubs, committees and capacitate them to revitalise sports and curb talent leakages.

“Sporting facilities, especially some country clubs, are in deplorable conditions. Last year, the ministry wanted to renovate Shamva, Centenary and Concession country clubs, but that failed to materialise due to lack of resources. As an organisation we have embarked on a normalisation exercise so that the country clubs are back to their former glory.”

Mr Maganga said they had started refurbishing Mvurwi Country Club, which needed urgent attention together with Barwick Country Club in Mazowe.

The provincial sports development committee chairperson, Mrs Tsitsi Muzuva, said sports facilities like the swimming pool and rugby pitch in Bindura had been lying idle for many years.

“We need to refurbish Bindura Swimming Pool and rugby pitch, which have been lying idle for a long time,” she said. “As a committee, we will make sure that these two facilities are refurbished for use by people in the community, tertiary institutions and athletes.

“We noted that very few people want to be involved in sports in the province. We thought it is a good idea to come up with committees starting with Bindura to help us organise sports. We have talented athletes, but in remote places like Mbire we need committees that will organise and oversee sport activities. We want a large number of athletes to take part in national events.”

The chairperson of Bindura Sports Development Committee is Mr Tafadzwa Chitiyo.