MUTARE– Sport and Recreation Commission (SRC) Commissioner Hebert Mukanhairi has revealed that government is in the process of developing a National Sport and Recreation strategy to streamline development of sport codes.
By Donald Nyarota
Addressing participants at the Safe and Inclusive Sport training, Commissioner Mukanhairi said the national strategy will ensure sport personnel embrace professionalism to promote high performance, safe and inclusive sport.
Mukanhairi said the sports apex body was pushing for the administration of sport professionally to attract investment as well as to enhance performance of sport persons.
“We are developing a National Sporting and Recreation strategy ably led by the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation and other stakeholders including the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee (ZOC) and the SRC among others.
“If the National Sport and Recreation Strategy is finalized all issues to deal with capacity, high performance and good governance as well as how to network with other stakeholders and partners will be clearly outlined in the new document,” he said.
He added; “Our main focus is to ensure that sport is run professionally so that sponsors, promoters, donors, athletes and other stakeholders that are involved in sport then come forth in terms of promotion of safe and inclusive sport.”
Mukanhairi said sporting disciplines in Zimbabwe where failing to excel due to lack of streamlined focus on sport codes which local sporting personnel are good at.
To address this, Mukanhairi said stakeholders must coalesce around a high-performance strategy that focuses on decentralization and capacitation of grassroots level stakeholders.
“In Zimbabwe, what we need to do is to streamline sport and recreation sport codes that we are good at first as well as focusing on the activities for different sport codes which we good at.
“The major challenge that we face is that our sport federations that we have do not have strategies, so what they need to do is develop strategies for their respective cords as well as coming up with high performance strategy.
“The high-performance strategy can also be developed nationally and should then speak to the aspect of the ease of doing business, in other words, we need to decentralize centres of excellence to grassroots level,” said Mukanhairi.
He added, “As we tap the talent it also needs to be channeled up all the way through structures from district, provincial and national, as well as substantial investment in coaches development and this will result in improved performance in terms of results.”
SRC in partnership with ZOC, with support from Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF) facilitated the training programme on safe and inclusive sport to promote inclusive approaches among sport practitioners, coaches, medics as well as stakeholders in sport.
