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SENATE HANSARD 20 October 2015 25-09
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 20th October, 2015.
The Senate met at Half-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENTS BY THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF
THE SENATE
INVITATION TO A MALARIA SENSITISATION WORKSHOP
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: I wish
to inform the Senate that all Members of Parliament are invited by the Ministry of Health and Child Care to a half-day Malaria Sensitisation
Workshop to be held tomorrow, Wednesday 21st October, 2015 from 8.00 a.m.to 1200 hours in the National Assembly Chamber.
PRE-BUDGET BRIEFING
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: I also
wish to inform the Senate that all Members of Parliament are invited to a
Pre-Budget Briefing to be held on Thursday, 22nd October, 2015 from 7.45 a.m. to 1300 hours at Pandhari Hotel in Harare.
ECONOMIC LITERACY WORKSHOP
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: I wish
to further inform the Senate that all Thematic Committee Chairpersons and one member from each Committee are invited to a Workshop on Economic Literacy to be held on Monday, 26th October, 2015 from 8 o’clock in the morning to 1730 hours at Pandhari Hotel.
TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS TO THE PRE-BUGET SEMINAR IN
VICTORIA FALLS
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: I wish
to advise the Senate that travel arrangements to the Pre-Budget Seminar in Victoria Falls are as follows: Only Hon. Members from the following provinces who will be driving to Victoria Falls will be issued with fuel coupons - Matabeleland North and South, Bulawayo, Midlands and Masvingo provinces. Hon. Members from the remaining provinces will fly from Harare to Victoria Falls. Accordingly, be advised that owing to budgetary constraints, Hon. Members who are not expected to drive will not be issued with fuel coupons. Flight details will be as follows; the first flight is at 1230 hours and the second is at 1530 hours respectively. On Friday, 30th October, 2015, the first return flight is at 1100 hours on
Tuesday, 3rd November, 2015 and the second return flight will be at 1400 hours on the same day. Check-in time is one hour before departure time.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE SENATE
HON. SEN. TAWENGWA: I move that Order of the Day, Number 1 be stood over until the rest of the Orders of the Day have been disposed of.
HON. SEN. MAKORE: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
PROMOTION OF SPORTS DEVELOPMENT
HON. SEN. CHIMBUDZI: I rise to move the motion standing in my name;
That this House –
NOTING the need to promote sports development in the country;
COGNISANT that sports play a major role in uniting society;
CONSIDERING that men and women are involved in sport;
CONCERNED that many talented school leavers are loitering hence some have experience in sports;
DESIROUS to see a policy that promotes sports in Zimbabwe;
ACKNOWLEDGING that sports can create employment;
NOW, THEREFORE, calls upon government –
- enact appropriate laws to capacitate the Sports Councils of
Zimbabwe;
- identify qualified coaches that will support talented players in both rural and urban areas;
- establish sports centres in all provinces; and
- eradicate corruption in sports
HON. SEN. MUMVURI: I second.
HON. SEN. CHIMBUDZI: Thank you Hon. President Sir, and may you allow me to use my notes. Hon. President, allow me to move this motion on the development of sports in this country and the imperative for deliberate and conscious policy aimed at making sports a priority in national programmes. Hon. President, I believe that we are all aware that sports such as football, cricket, tennis, volleyball, rugby, just to mention a few, are a critical component not only of entertainment and recreation in this country, but as a source of livelihood for many people, an economic activity and a source of employment. Furthermore, sports play a critical role in nation building through rallying people and unifying them under a single spirit of nationhood and patriotism.
Cognisance of this Hon. President, allow me to point out that, as a country, we must proactively create a viable framework that allows for sports development starting from the grass root levels, a framework that creates sport education as a key component in our educational curriculum. I notice Hon. President that our schools have been striving to integrate sports education since independence with the adoption of compulsory physical education training, expansion of sports training modules in teacher training institutions and the broadening of sports activities in most schools, to include new sports such as handball and basketball.
Nevertheless, despite these efforts, you will agree with me that sports development at the school level has not been so enthusiastically embraced with the result that our school system has not played a critical role in identifying and nurturing sports talent. Most often, pupils with genuine sports talent have left school without having had the opportunity to showcase or develop that talent in a way possible for them to compete at a global level.
Mr. President, it is a fact that current technical capacities of most of our schools in the discipline of sport are critically handicapped with the few exceptions of private schools and well-to-do Government schools. At the majority of our rural schools, sporting facilities are either non-existent or dilapidated. Sports such as cricket, tennis, basketball, swimming have no facilities at all and it is as if these are for a special group of schools. Mr. President, I feel that it will be unfair for this Government to continue with the colonial policy of separate development and segregation in sports by entrenching the rigid sports infrastructure differentiation between poor schools and rich elite multiracial schools.
Section 32 of our new Constitution implores the State to take practical measures to encourage sporting and recreational activities, including the provision of sporting and recreational facilities for all people. In this regard Mr. President, the State has a responsibility to create equal sporting opportunities across the whole country through funding the establishment of sports infrastructure at poor rural schools and providing specialized training personnel for these sporting activities.
Teachers’ colleges must therefore broaden their curriculum to train sports specific teachers in such disciplines as cricket, rugby, hockey and swimming. In addition, the time dedicated for sports within school calendars and timetables must be expanded such that sports are not just haphazard brief incidents but become deeply internalized and routine within the learning and development framework.
Mr. President, in the developed world, governments have noted that while the corporate world must play its part in junior sports development, Government itself must set up grants and adequate funding to create junior sports development centres and academies for all sports at provincial centres. These centres must identify and recruit young people with sports competencies across a variety of disciplines and train them to become professional athletes.
The success of youth academies in nurturing talent and contributing to national sports development is well documented.
Famous football clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester
United have produced some of the finest footballers through this system. While I applaud the national youth games, I feel that the games must be expanded to increase more sponsorship as an incentive for youth sports development.
Mr. President, sports development also requires a legislative framework which capacitates national sporting institutions and gives them an extensive mandate to play a bigger role. In this regard, I call upon legislatures to look into ways of extending the influence and national capacity of the Sports and Recreation Commission so that it can effectively carry out its mandate. Pursuant to this, is the need to adopt a national sports policy, which amongst other things recognises the gender dimension in sport and creates an enabling environment for young girls to participate fully in sports.
Mr. President, another cardinal principle for sports development is fostering a culture of good governance in sports administration. We are all aware how bad administration has crippled the development of most of our national sports, particularly football. Corruption and poor administration has hampered the development of local sports as most corporate sponsors have withdrawn funding. Today, as I speak, the rot at the national soccer governing body ZIFA has grown so big that the local football brand has taken a tumultuous nosedive and our country has been barred from participating at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. These issues point to the critical need to eradicate bad governance in sports and to enhance the capacity of sports administrative institutions. I thank you.
HON. SEN. MUMVURI: Thank you Mr. President. I rise to support the motion raised by Senator Chimbudzi. She has spelt out in her presentation most of the things which are lacking in our sports administration. However, I also want to add my voice and say the development of sport has been hampered, among other factors by economic hardships. The economic crunch which is prevailing at the moment is not doing any good to the sports world. The few corporate companies which have come forward with funding have done so through sacrifice but again, instead of persisting, their efforts have been met by lack of accountability by those who administer sport, which is tantamount to corruption and misuse of funds.
Companies such as Delta Beverages and mining concerns like Mbada tried to help sports, notably soccer but there are also elite sports which are receiving a lot of funding despite the hard economic hardships. Cricket does not run out of sponsorship but it is an elite sport. I do not know whether the companies choose to pour their money in cricket and rugby but the mass sports are suffering; soccer, netball, handball, et cetera.
Another factor which has hampered development of sport through my observation, I have been involved in sports before I came to Parliament for 15 years, training physical education and sport. This is one area which people find hard, especially the old people to accept.
There is no change to embrace sport. People still see sport as a passtime activity and yet the modern approach to sport; it offers employment as what Senator Chimbudzi has already said. When you go to schools, people still look down upon sport as the last thing on the timetable of a school, yet it plays an important role to those who are otherwise less gifted in academic subjects. We must try to find out this and exploit the talent of those people. There are so many talented young sports persons out there in the rural areas and even here in the urban areas.
So, change must be embraced by everyone. Change is not easy to come by. When you say change, people resist change, but when it comes it comes with good results. If you go to a school which has a school head who supports sports financially, that school does very well. If you go to an institution where a head frowns on sport, that school does not excel in sports at all.
The other thing is we must try to use qualified people to run our sports disciplines in institutions like schools and colleges. That is why we have got associations; netball association, football association and so forth. Those are qualified people; teachers and school heads should leave the running of sports to those qualified people and pay them. So, if an institution is not willing to pay, and say, ‘why should we hire associations when we have a sports director here? A sports director is not fair when he/she is training his team. When it comes to competitions, he/she tends to favour his/her team. These are some of the nitty-gritties in administration, which we are not taking care of very seriously. I think the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education in conjunction with the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, are now tackling this at college and school level. That is what we should do. We must see professionalism prevailing in sports.
Unless and until that prevails, we will not appreciate the good of sport at all, because if the school head says my team is not going to lose - that is not true. He/she will go to the referee and say that is not a penalty, or that one is a handball. The school head will influence the teachers. So, we must leave that one for associations to run the sports.
There is another observation which permeates throughout the sports persons themselves. There is rampant indiscipline among some of the athletes and players themselves. Otherwise, very talented individuals have faded into oblivion through just brief successes when it creeps into their heads that they know. Those who grew up during my time, I will give an example of a soccer player from Highfield called Archford Chimutanda. He was very talented, he could play very well for Black Aces, Dynamos and so forth but he was very indisciplined. He could have gone very far but when he would be playing in the field there he would be a hero. Soon after the game, you would find the policemen waiting for him. He would not get out of the stadium, they would have been looking for him, so they would get him there. He would have committed crimes somewhere. That destroys sport; we must have self discipline as players. This is filtering to our national team players. They put up mediocre performance instead of 100%.
I want to applaud the players in the past, like Peter Ndlovu.
‘Nsukuzonke’. He was one of the best, in my view. He played 110%,
not 100%. You could see him cry when his team loses, as a captain. Those are the people; if we have five or six in the team like those, our team will succeed. It is unfortunate that applies to team games because team games you have play total performance all of us. It is different from individual players. In individual athletes, for example track events; if you run 100 metres, it is up to you to get the 100 metres and you will get it. You train on your own, your effort is not hampered by anybody. No one is going to pull you back. An example of that we have our golden girl, Kirsty Coventry. Recently she came back into the pool and she got three gold medals. That is good performance and individual performance is easier to maintain and manage on your own. So, the team performance is lacking because we put up mediocre performance, there is indiscipline and so forth. Drug taking is penetrating into sports. If you see somebody you think he is good but he goes nowhere because of the indiscipline.
Before yesterday’s game, you heard about the National Team coach firing at least three people for reporting for training late. That is what it should be. I applaud Calisto Pasuwa for doing that, even if they are stars, they must put up good behaviour.
Coming to the Government rectifying what it should do. The Sports Policy is in the pipeline at the moment. We urge that it be expedited and becomes a framework to work within the soonest possible time. We are pleased with the goings on in the sports at the moment. There are changes and developments with the new Minister, he is raring to go, he happens to be my product as well. The ZIFA changes in administration, I think it is being welcomed that one we look forward to bigger things for success but the Government must put the policy in place.
Establishment of sports centres, I said these are hampered by the economic environment which is not very conducive at the moment and remuneration of both officials and participants should improve. Again, it hinges on the economic performance. Really, all those who want to become ZIFA President in the near future and replace Cuthbert Dube, it is not an easy job. They will find out that it is not an easy job.
Otherwise some of them would say Cuthbert Dube was doing better, but I am not saying this is what was happening. We must listen to everything and take every factor which promotes sports to make it go forward. Otherwise we want to thank Senator Chimbudzi. I personally feel that this motion must be debated thoroughly so that we can have a way forward to promote our sports.
Before I sit down I want personally to congratulate the Mighty
Warriors for making it to Brazil. It is the first time honestly, – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – We are proud of the girl child. They did very well, I watched the game. The goal was very beautiful. That team which they were playing against is a very good team, you could see but they managed to hold on and they won with a 1:0. That is what a team should do when they click and work together. With those few words, I want to say good going, to Rio here will come! Thank you very much.
*HON. SEN. TAWENGWA: Thank you Hon. Madam President,
I will try and translate what they were saying into Shona.
I would like to thank Hon. Sen. Chimbudzi for tabling this motion and supported by Hon. Sen. Mumvuri. This is a very important motion. I know some of us usually take sport leisurely or when people have nothing better to do but it is very important. My plea is for Government to come up with strong measures to support sports in this country because we are mainly focusing at health, education and other social services that should be addressed by Government. We therefore, plead with the Government to set aside some funding that will be used in the sporting arena especially this time when we are talking about the national budget.
We are not only talking about trans-gender soccer but looking at all sports in general such as boxing. Some of us are aware of one of the best players in Africa, Proud Kilimanjaro. He was a boxing expert in Africa. We have had some of our local players who have done well abroad and they brought trophies home. Yes, we agree that during that time, sport was not paying much. We are also talking about wrestling legends, we had people specialising in this like Oliver Bamu. A lot of sports were held in the Glamis Stadium. We know people like Oliver Tengende.
Looking at Karate, we had Zimbabweans who even went to countries like Russia to compete. People are not well versed with the effects of these sports because we have cyclists who specialised in these sports like Samson Moyo. We hear that these people are earning a lot of money, look at the money that is paid to athletes especially in Tour de France. We know our people can benefit from these sports as we even have people cycling from Harare to Mutoko, so we have a lot of sport.
We also boast of swimming where in the past children used to go for swimming in the rivers. They need to be taught how to perfect their skills by giving them the techniques. We can start that by taking them back to these rivers and holding sports in the rivers before venturing to the urban swimming pools. We know our children can also perfect their skills and develop when they run after draught power like cattle and goats. Therefore, we also need to look at what is offered by these schools as we have some that are of high esteem.
In tennis, are we saying it is just the Black family that is gifted in the sport? No, I am saying children can also engage in the sport and develop. Government should come up with financial support so that our children benefit from sports as a lot of money can be earned by our children. We need to have sponsors; people who will do everything in order to get sport supported but if we drag sports through bad administration, the sponsors will retract their support.
We have soccer legends like Peter Ndlovu and Benjani Mwaruwaru who are living luxuriously because they went abroad and earned a lot of money. In the past, we had people who played very good soccer and were soccer legends for quite some time; people like George Shaya who had soccer at heart. They were given meager allowances but they survived on that. We had people like Freddie Mukwesha, Ernest Kamba and Oliver Kateya who played superb soccer but did not benefit financially owing to the prevailing environment.
Indeed sport is a unifier as it brings peace. People talk about teams battling it out on the fields and when they win, people are happy.
Therefore, we are pleading with the Government to please avail more money for sports so that sporting facilities are maintained and constructed. We have a lot of sporting facilities that are now dilapidated. I can give you a good example of the Aquatic Complex in Chitungwiza, it is a wonderful sporting arena and a good venue by international standards but it is now dilapidated and is mainly used by churches and musical bands.
There are other neglected sporting arenas in other cities - swimming pools, netball and soccer pitches are wasting away because the councils that are supposed to be running them have other priorities. Therefore, we are pleading with the Government to channel more funding into sports so that people may benefit. We are not saying new facilities should not be constructed but that it is easier to maintain the existing structures than constructing new sites.
Let me now turn to the debate that was raised by Hon. Sen. Mumvuri. He spoke about the Mighty Warriors and we congratulate them as they proceed to the World Cup. We thank Calisto Pasuwa and the players as we know the Mighty Warriors will be going to Rio de Jenairo. It is heartening to note that our soccer teams went through thick and thin when they were playing these games and they managed to pull through.
We acknowledge the support to these bodies by the Minister of Sport and Recreation, Hon. Hlongwane. He promised to give them tokens of gratitude if they won and also take care of them. After triumphing, he held a banquet in their honor and each member was given US$200.00 – that is an incentive. The coaches were also promised bonuses for winning but then the coaches would then resign after being let down. People who had promised to pay him did not fulfill their promise.
We thank the man of God, Prophet Magaya who came in to support the teams when they go out to play. We wish more people would come forward and support soccer. Mighty Warriors we are proud of you because we have had no soccer team that has gone to the
Olympic Games since 1980. Therefore, we say to the girl child, congratulations, this Senate is proud of your achievements; you have put Zimbabwe on the map. We wish you every success when you go out there to play. We also wish the soccer supporters to continue supporting the girl child so that preparations are made on time and they succeed in their endeavors.
The previous speaker also spoke about soccer coaches, we need to have coaches who have soccer at heart but my advice is that they should go for scouting and do it in the schools because that is where we have the talented soccer players. They should not let everything to be in the hands of the teacher, he might not be the best coach.
When we talk of administrators, we need to have people who have sport at heart, not those who are coming to benefit something from it. It is these people who are coming with mercenary approach, we know of people we read in the press that some of these leaders in soccer, saying they are presidents, but they have never attended as many soccer games as they were supposed to. So, what kind of a leader is that, who does not go out with the army when it is fighting? A leader is supposed to go out into the fields and join his or her army. My plea is that whenever we are electing soccer administrators; let us choose those who have soccer at heart.
We a have lot of teams such us Under 13, when they want to go out and play, they come and look for sponsorship so that they can go and play. We know that our soccer fields are under the local authorities and we are now saying the leadership of local authorities should be focused and look at the future, saying we have these sporting facilities but they should be used by people free of charge. This will be our way of supporting soccer in the country and Zimbabwe will grow into a big soccer nation.
My last contribution is that, the administrators of sports should be people of upright standing, not corrupt people, not those who need to fill their pockets before they would have done their jobs. We believe this has let the sporting field down. Hon. Sen. Mumvuri also talked about one of the best players ever to be produced by this country, Archford
Chimutanda from Highfield. He was a natural soccer man, when you
see him out of the grounds; his physic and attitude were completely different. I can talk of boxers again, when they leave the arena, the way they behave, indiscipline, fighting, drinking beer, but we are saying we need the support of the people. Therefore, you should be a sports man, both in and outside the arena. The sponsors will come and support you because that is what they would have seen in you.
Therefore, I would like to thank Hon. Sen. Mumvuri and Hon. Sen.
Chimbudzi for bringing such a topic in the House.
HON. SEN. MOHADI: Thank you once more Madam President
for giving me this opportunity to add a few words on the motion that has been presented by Hon. Sen. Chimbudzi seconded by Hon. Sen.
Mumvuri, on the promotion and development of sports in the country.
First and foremost, as other speakers have said, I want to congratulate the Mighty Warriors for doing a very good job. They have put Zimbabwe on the map of women soccer, a job that everyone was not thinking that the girls were going to make it but finally they have done it. Let us have our thumbs up for the girls, for the girl child in particular, who has participated without any monies or whatever but they have given themselves to work for Zimbabwe. Thank you for the job well done.
Not also forgetting the Warriors who also made it when they played with Lesotho. Madam President, let me tell you that sport is a business on its own if taken seriously. Let me give you a personal example, I have my own nephew who is now based in the United States of America. He got a scholarship when he was doing Form 5; he used to do very well in rugby. So, he is being sponsored whenever he is doing his studies just because he did well in sports.
Madam President, I urge the Government during the budget, to put aside money for sports, it will enhance a lot of youths to come together. These young people have got many talents in sports but due to lack of resources, you would find that they lose morale because they find it not working. Financial assistance is the corner stone for the development of sports. Let us put our heads together in order to assist the sports development in financing this department. You would find that sports creates employment on its own and that our youths are kept together, some of them will abstain from drug abuse and all alcohol abuse because they will be kept busy most of the time. So, let us try by all means to have resources for sports. It also keeps them healthy because sporting is an exercise and it will keep our youths healthy.
Madam President, I urge the Ministry of Sports, Arts and Culture to be accountable. We are talking about funds, but if ever there is no accountability of those funds, no one will ever want to put money there. There should be transparency in whatever is done in sports so that it encourages even the well wishers apart from Government to put their monies there. No one is prepared to put his or her money where there is no accountability. Madam President, let the issue of corruption be a thing of the past. Let us look forward and find a way of dealing with corruption. If we continue having corruption, our sports will never thrive anywhere.
Madam President, I also want to add my voice, you would find that the marathon that some have talked about, right down in Beitbridge, in the Constituency, we have a marathon that has been sponsored by the
South Africans which also needs the Zimbabweans to join, it starts from Zimbabwe going to South Africa but our people are so relaxed but you find that our people are so relaxed, yet it is a way of living. Very few Zimbabweans participate in that marathon and the few that join win. Let us join that marathon; it is an annual event which is done every year.
Let us encourage our youths to get involved in that marathon.
When going out to our constituencies Madam President, let me say that, let us have each and every one involved in sports for them to grow because as Members of Parliament, we need to lead in developing our areas. It is only us who can develop those constituencies. Whenever we talk about Government, we should always ask ourselves this question;
“Who is Government?” Government is you and me; we have to assist wherever possible. Let us not take Government to be a different animal whereby we expect everything to come from it while we are looking.
The question comes, what are you doing about people in your constituency because they need sports? We have a lot of school leavers in the communities who are actually doing nothing. It is our duty as legislators to assist them wherever possible so that they also grow in sports. We might talk about the national sports and so forth but as long as at grass root level people are doing nothing, they will never grow. It is us who should take a lead and go to the constituencies, the grass root level and assist our children so that they grow in sports.
When we talk about our constituencies, the areas that most of us come from, they are not in towns. They do not have radios or television. They are in darkness. If it is so, how can they get the information about sport other than through ourselves, helping those school leavers in the communities. We need to work hard in order to come up with a viable developmental promotion on sports in the country.
Whenever we talk about sports, we should not only think about sports at national level or in towns. Let us also take into consideration the remote areas where there is no information, where most of us come from. We ought to take this message back and encourage them to get into sports. With these few words Madam President, I thank you. *HON. SEN. GOTO: Thank you Madam President. I want to
thank the mover and the seconder of the motion. The motion that they have brought in is very important for us as leaders so that we know what is happening in the country. Thank you Hon. Sen. Chimbudzi.
Sport is very important because I grew up as an athlete. I would run just like boys. The reason why I want to support sport is that the Senators who debated before me, talked a lot about it. What I want to add is that as Senators and Members of Parliament, we should lead by example in our constituencies. What are we doing out there? There are so many school leavers roaming in the streets who are now engaged in immoral activities and crime. When children are occupied with something, they will be disciplined.
I always say that one should lead by example so that you teach others. As Senators, we should be involved in sport. We have soccer teams here, they are going to Zambia to play against other nations and if we are not engaging in that, how can we encourage some other people to do so yet we are not doing it. Yes, the Government is supporting us if we are excelling in those areas.
I do lead by example where I come from, in Wedza Constituency I have different age groups, school leavers and elderly people, there is athletes’ competition which is going to happen in November. If it were nearby, I would invite all of you. This is our second edition. The first time we did it, I gave them a small token of appreciation because I do not have the money. I think there should be a token of appreciation which should be given. I looked for sponsorship on my own and people competed and got tokens of appreciation because half a loaf is better than nothing. If you appreciate their efforts, they would really be happy. Right now, I am asking for donations from you so that I can give to my teams which are competing. I have age groups of 30 – 40 years ($100) and then 40-50 ($200 and $400). There are bottle races and many competitions.
I am really happy because I thought what I was doing was nothing but I have seen that it is a good thing. I plead that all of us should copy what is good. If the Government had money, I think it would chip in. I have heard that Hon. Sen. Tawengwa has said that this should be budgeted for so that we support our sport.
Sport is good for our health. If you are an active person, you will not get sick. In my constituency, old ladies ran and fell down but I realised that what we needed were coaches. They should be trained at the grass root level, that is what we are doing. Right now, in my constituency, they are saying I am delaying the competitions. I am encouraging them to participate in sport activities. If a child does not do well in school, we scolded him or her with that, not realizing their talent and that they can live on that talent. Some have gone out of the country because of athletics. You cannot force someone to do what they are not gifted in but you have to support their talent.
I want to thank you Hon. Sen. Chimbudzi because this is a very pertinent issue. I am involved in it already and I have heard that it is important. I think we should unite so that we would be given a chance to compete against each other. This can make us able to deal with diseases like BP and diabetes. I do exercise when lying on my bed because I know that age is catching up with me. Running is very important. I can run and anyone who wants to compete with me is welcome. This is a very good project which we should embark on as
Hon. Senators. I want to thank you Hon Sen. Chimbudzi and Hon. Sen. Mumvuri for seconding the motion. I want to invite you to my constituency so that you witness what is happening there.
In conclusion, I want to say all those who are coaching these people are trained from outside the country. I have some people who came from outside the country. As Senators, if you have a constituency this is what you can do so that you bring the constituencies together. We can go and ask from the people that have it because if we sit and do nothing, then we will be rendered useless. So I want to thank you Senator Chimbudzi.
+HON. SEN. MALULEKE: Thank you Hon. President, for
giving me the opportunity to make my contribution on this motion raised by Hon. Sen. Chimbudzi and seconded by Hon. Sen. Mumvuri. Yes, we believe that sport is very essential and makes us healthy people. We used to go to school or we go to school and realised that we all have different talents.
We had a person who later became famous who was called
Michael Jackson. He used to dodge school and go to music. His parents tried to drag him to academic but it was not his line and he succeeded in music. We know in schools we are exposed to a lot of things such as sports especially in rural areas. We have a lot of sports which can be of benefit to our children. I know when we were at school, we played different games and we would say we are going for sports. All the sports which we played, we were so limited in scope and we said it was only holding that ball and that would be the sport.
During that time, I was a defender and that would be my position which I excelled in. We used to compete with the elderly people in the past and this was a bottle race whereby I would put on my head and run and nobody would beat me. We also used to compete in needle race and we would see who is fast in that sport. I used to be the best and nobody would beat me. People would be learning what to do with that threaded cotton.
We also had the three-legged race and we would run as a team and see which team would win. We also had a sport which was called sack race; you would get into a race and hope in that sack. The idea was to see who would go to the finishing line. We also had swimming but unfortunately, I was not part of the swimmers. I was a good fisher. I realised that I had problems because when there were lots of rains in one year, those of us who could swim were able to cross the stream but I failed.
We now realise that it is essential that we develop sport for survival and as leaders, we need to scout for these talents and progress them. We also had a game which we called the egg and spoon race. We would put an egg on a table spoon and run and hand it over as a relay to another runner who would take it up. Whoever let the egg fall would be deemed to have failed to pull through. We also had a game that we played which was similar to a tug of war. We would see who fell into the river and teachers used to organise these games that we enjoyed them.
May I plead with the teachers and community leaders that some of the funds which are raised should be put for the games of the elderly so that when they run in these games they will be given some incentives? As leaders, let us go and talk to our local councils so that when there is money, it be invested in these sporting activities. Councils have a lot of money which come from people in forms of rates and rents. These can be invested in sports in the areas they come from because we cannot just let this to be done by Government. The grandmothers, grandfathers, school leavers, and all those may benefit from the support by the councils.
There is another area that I think we should give support to. We have in our community the disabled. We need to support the disabled and the sport they do depends on their disability. I know they used to play basketball. I was very fascinated to see the disabled working in such a sport. They are people who are equal to us. At times, they are more intelligent than us. In such areas, they should be given opportunities or be appointed as managers. I am appealing to local authorities to support the disabled because disability is not inability.
I am not going to indulge in the topics raised by other speakers. I have to say thank you Senator Chimbudzi and Senator Mumvuri. You have opened up our minds. We are now thinking outside the box and we are enlightened because of the motion which you have raised. This is going to be of benefit to us and as legislators, we can also support these sports by sourcing for prices such as buying simple things such as hoes that will be given to the winners. Hon. Sen. Goto, thank you for that because we have sports such as hlengweni. These sports are different and are done by the elderly. Some of them would run; others play some other games which they are capable of and in each of those sports, there are winners. These winners get prices.
We have the Shangani culture and they also win because we have some who won prices at the national level. If they are given support, they can go to other countries, compete and bring revenue for the State. I thank you.
HON. SEN. B. SIBANDA: Thank you Hon. President. I rise to give support to the mover and the seconder of the motion Sen. Chimbudzi and Sen. Mumvuri. Thank you very much for bringing such an important subject to this floor. For a start, I know that we are likely to say the same thing over but I will try to limit myself to four or five issues.
The first thing is that all the four points that Sen. Chimbudzi has raised in which she is urging Government to take action are very relevant and none of them is controversial. All of them are designed to build sport and I thank her very much for that. Secondly, if we cast back to 1980, you will remember that soon after independence we participated in the Olympics in Russia. Our golden girls came top and our soccer team which included the under 17 or 23 also came tops. It is my wish and it was my hope at that time that we would build on that. If we had built on that, we would be very far. What I am trying to say is, if we get an opportunity let us build on it and increase the capacity the nation to perform better. The third thing I want to raise is, I understand most good sports persons start their careers at very tender age. Generally, it is around three or four years of age. Those of us – the fathers and the mothers, please let us encourage our children to do whatever they like at early age and that is where success is going to come from.
The fourth point I want to make is that 75% of our population is rural. By inference and implication, it means that 75% of our sport persons are going to come out of our rural areas. I therefore encourage that whatever programme, whether it is Government or senator initiated, let us focus on our rural areas. That is where we are going to get 75% of our sports persons and 75% of our sports performance is going to be born out of the rural areas. Let us endeavour to do that.
The fifth point I want to raise is ‘sport is a unifier’. I have seen good things develop in spite of the hatred that may be there sometimes between our political parties. I have seen them playing sport together and I have never heard that after the match, there have been clashes. So, it says that as politicians, we also have a platform to use sport to eliminate the internal political conflicts that we may have – [HON.
SENATORS: Hear, hear.] –
Last but not least, the issue of transparency permeates all our endeavours. Whatever we do or we do not do, we must always call on the name of transparency. Nobody is going to support a shady kind of sport activity. People are going to be keen to support open sport. You have heard that other people played sport just for the beauty of sport. Today, we play sport for money and people support sport for the marketing return that they get out of sport. For example, if we are in conflict in sport and there is little governance in sport, the Deltas of today are going to take a step back. All the potential supporters will take a step back. Government itself will not put money into an organisation that will have problems with transparency. Madam President, with those few words, I want to thank the mover, the seconder of the motion and also the current performers in our sport areas and urge all of us to push them to do more. Let us create the environment that will assist the two football teams that have done well to do better. I thank you Madam President.
HON. SEN. TAWENGWA: I move that the debate do now
adjourn.
HON. SEN. MAKORE: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 21st October, 2015.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
Third Order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
HON. SEN. TAWENGWA: I move that the debate do now
adjourn.
HON. SEN. HLALO: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 21st October, 2015.
On the motion of HON. SEN. TAWENGWA, seconded by HON. SEN. MOHADI, the Senate adjourned at Twelve Minutes to Four o’clock p.m.