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Sports Reporter

THE 9th edition of the AUSC Region 5 Youth Games face a possible cancellation, or postponement, if the novel coronavirus pandemic continues up to July.

This was one of several outcomes of the virtual meeting of the AUSC Region 5 Troika of Ministers responsible for sport held via Skype on Thursday last week.

The meeting was attended by the three members of the AUSC Region 5 Troika.

Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Mahali Phamotse, the Lesotho Minister of Gender, Youth, Sports and Recreation, Francis Phiso, Minister of Youth Development and Sport in Malawi and Tumiso Rakgare, Botswana’s Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sports and Culture Development took part in the indaba.

The meeting was convened to assess the risk imposed on the AUSC Region 5 programmes and activities in the wake of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.

This is in accordance with Article 15 of the AUSC Region 5 Constitution which states that the Troika takes decisions in between meetings of the Council of Ministers.

The Troika meeting was convened to assess the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the Region 5 programmes and activities scheduled for the first half of the year, including the Region 5 Youth Games Chefs de Mission meeting that was scheduled for March 22 to 28, 2020 in Maseru, Lesotho.

The chief executive of the AUSC Region 5, Stanley Mutoya of Zimbabwe, noted that the magnitude of the pandemic, and its impact on the Region’s ecosystem, especially its impact on the revenue of the region, prompted the Troika to assess the risk exposure and champion requisite responses and appropriate risk treatment. 

“The Region has in place a Risk Management framework which maps any emerging risk against a matrix of consequence rating, likelihood priority for attention”, Mutoya told The Herald at the weekend.

After this rigorous exercise, the COVID-19 risk rated in risk consequence rating of 6 which is the highest risk, risk likelihood category 6 which depicts a risk that has up to 20% probability of recurring and treatment priority 1 which is for risks that require urgent attention.

In response to the risk assessment, the Troika noted with concern the impact of the novel COVID-19 pandemic on sport and its devastating magnitude to health and safety of nations globally.

The Troika also appreciated the swift intervention by the governments of all member countries in which measures were swiftly put in place in an effort to mitigate the effects of the virus and to flatten the infection curve.

The Ministers further noted how sport has been made dysfunctional and the impact the virus has had on the entire sports ecosystem in the world and in the region.