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Jillian Shava Sports Reporter
FINAL preparations for the annual Confederation of School Sports Associations of Southern Africa (Cossasa) ball games to be hosted by Zimbabwe are now underway.

The annual tournament is for primary and secondary school pupils aged between 13 and 17 years, and is scheduled to be held in Bulawayo from August 27-29.

Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland have already confirmed their participation ahead of the July 15 deadline.

Delegates from Lesotho, Botswana and Namibia were in Bulawayo at the weekend to check on the country’s level of preparedness.

“The delegates were here for the African Union Region 5 sports meeting so as Cossasa we took the opportunity to ask them to assess our level of preparednesss. We’ve gone around inspecting the venues so that the member countries familiarise themselves with what conditions our venues are in,” said Cossasa president Johnson Madhuku.

He said Cossasa are satisfied with the facilities to be used for the games.

Petra High School and Christian Brothers’ College (CBC) will be the venues for basketball, Bulawayo Athletic Club (BAC) for tennis, Hartsfield Ground for rugby, Luveve High School for volleyball, while football would be played at the pitches behind Barbourfields Stadium and White City Stadium, which will also host all netball matches.

Madhuku said each country is expected to field teams in all six disciplines, although some might opt for a few.

Most facilities for the Games have been availed for free and Madhuku applauded individuals involved in securing the venues.

National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) national vice-president, Arthur Maphosa said the selection of Team Zimbabwe was still underway with the association using tournaments such as the Arenel soccer and Stella Tanganda Netball to choose the teams.

“Being home is an advantage to us because we’ll be able to field teams in all disciplines without worrying about travelling costs. Teams are still being selected and we’ve so far selected the Under-17 volleyball and basketball teams,” said Maphosa.