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Sikhumbuzo Moyo in Bulawayo and Tobias Mandoreba in Hwange
THE 2016 edition of the Youth Education through Sports Games get underway in Hwange this morning under a cloud after the death of three Ministry of Sport and Recreation officials in Norton on Thursday on their way to the coal mining town for the games.

While the Ministry of Sport and Recreation officials were not forthcoming with the names, Chronicle Sport has gathered that Regis Chabata, one Fusire and Mpandase died on the spot while travelling on a CMED bus that overturned moments after the trio had boarded it.

Burzil Dube, the YES Games’ local organising committee chief executive officer, expressed sorrow on the unfortunate calamity and said all their games will begin with  a minute of silence in honour of the trio.

“It’s a sad state of affairs for us and a huge loss to the nation.  They were constantly here conducting workshops only to fail to see the fruit of their knowledge. In their honour we will have a minute of silence across the various matches,” said Dube.

Meanwhile, the Games’ head of secretariat in the Local Organising Committee (LOC) Newman Masuku said:

“The games will start tomorrow (today). All the logistics for accreditation are in place at the command centre at Hwange High School.  All the technical officers and volunteers will also undergo an induction at the same place. Preceding the games will be a National Sports Forum meeting at the Little Theatre where the main issues for discussion will be the new sports and recreation policy which was launched this year, the rebranded National Youth Games and need to adopt a national colour for national and international games.”

The venues for the games are Coalfields, Thomas Coulter, Lwendulu and Megawatt primary schools and Lwendulu Old ground.

“As the hosts we are very happy with the state of the venues and the general preparedness by the province and the hosting town in particular and we hope there will be lots of fun and competition for the next three days,” added Masuku.

The YES Games target the under-15 age group and are anchored on three pillars namely sport, peer education and community service with disciplines being volleyball (both male and females); football (both male and females) and netball.

The games serve as a precursor to the National Youth Games which the same province will host in August next year.

The Minister of State for Provincial Affairs for Mat North Province Affairs Cain Mathema will officially open the games tomorrow at the Colliery Stadium with the closing ceremony and prize giving ceremony slated for the same venue at 4pm the following day.

The theme for this year’s YES Games is “Unethical practices, a barrier to youth development through sport.”