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Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
THE opening ceremony of the African Union Sports Council Region 5 Under-20 Youth Gameshas been postponed from today to Sunday.
President Mugabe, who is also the chairperson of Sadc, will open the Games at the new-look Barbourfields Stadium in Bulawayo.Speaking during a Press conference at the Games Command Centre yesterday, the Region 5 secretary general and the organising committee chairperson, Mvuzo Mbebe said:

“As Roc, we’re responsible for looking at various aspects of how these programmes go. We sat down and agreed that the opening ceremony must be befitting the chairperson of Sadc who is President Mugabe. In our analysis, we felt that if we go on with the opening tomorrow (today), it will not befit the effort made by his Excellency, President Mugabe and the people of Zimbabwe”.

He said they had informed the President and explained their position to him.

“We reached an agreement with his Excellency that the opening of these Games be held on Sunday and we really would like to thank President Mugabe for his understanding that we move the opening ceremony to Sunday. We want to apologise to the people of Bulawayo and the media   for that but it would have been impossible for us as Roc to have gone ahead with the opening ceremony tomorrow,” said Mbebe who was flanked by the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture who is also the chairperson of the region’s council of Ministers for Sports, Andrew Langa, Local organising committee vice chairperson Nyararai Sibanda, Sports Ministry’s permanent secretary Thokozile Chitepo, Region 5 general manager Stanley Mutoya, chairperson of the executive committee Vetumbuavi Veii and his deputy George Jani.

On the Games venues’ readiness, Mbebe said they were thoroughly satisfied that all the venues are ready to play host to the Games although start dates will be changed a bit for athletics and basketball.

He said White City Stadium was now three quarters complete and competitions would now start on Monday instead of Saturday to allow for the track to be fully ready.

“We’ll have athletics competition starting on Monday and still ending on Friday. The other minor hitch was at the basketball courts   at the ZITF. The equipment is still in Durban but it has docked and measures have been put in place to make sure it gets to the border tonight (yesterday) and by Friday everything should be ready. We have, however, put in motion Plan B by acquiring standard equipment from Harare and creating Court Three,”  said Mbebe.

He was quick to say that on the five previous occasions that the Games have been held, basketball has been held on one court but they still managed to meet the deadline, adding that Zimbabwe will be the first country to have two courts and possibly three.

Mbebe gave the thumbs up to the security, accreditation as well as accommodation and food for the athletes.

“As we speak all the athletes have been able to get good food on time and we’ve not received reports of teams threatening to pull out of the Games Village because of the poor quality of food. The transport system has been superb so far, all the confederations have been given a car and a kombi, so for now I really would want to say it’s thumbs up,” said Mbebe.