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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter

IN the midst of death, anguish and pain caused by Cyclone Idai with thousands still missing including teachers and pupils, Midlands Christian College will next week play host to a schools’ inter-provincial athletics competition.

To date, 139 lives have been lost, including that of National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) head in charge of athletics for Chipinge district, Claudius Rumbwere, who drowned together with his entire family. At Dzingire Primary School in Chimanimani, the school headmaster, two teachers, one school employee and 39 pupils are still missing. 

Property worth millions of dollars has been destroyed and President Mnangagwa has since declared a state of disaster and two days of national mourning starting today.

Next week’s track and field athletics competition will bring together all the country’s 10 provinces, including a still badly shaken Manicaland. 

A moment of silence, as alluded to by the vice president of the National Association of School Heads, Arthur Maphosa, while noble, is really not enough, especially in view of the calamitous nature of what occurred in Manicaland.

Early this week the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) and the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation postponed the National Arts and Merit Awards which were meant to be held in Harare this evening.

“The 18th National Arts Merit Awards date has been moved to 13 April 2019.

 As the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, together with our parastatal – the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe, we made the decision based on the current national situation of the effects of the natural disaster, Cyclone Idai that has claimed lives and vastly destroyed properties,” said the Ministry in a statement.