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 Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter 

The African Union Sports Council (Ausc) Region 5 Troika of Ministers’ meeting early next month will determine whether the Youth Games set for Maseru, Lesotho, in December will go ahead or not.

The Games were postponed by a year in December last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic that swept across member states.

The decision to postpone the Games was taken by the Minister’ Troika in July last year.

The Troika is chaired by Lesotho’s Minister of Gender, Youth, Sport and Recreation, Likeleli Tampane, and includes Malawian Minister of Youth and Sport Ulemu Msungama as well as Botswana Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development Tumiso Rakgare.

Following a thorough assessment of the risk matrix as guided by the Region 5 risk management framework, the ministers resolved to postpone the Games by a year to December 2021, but those dates will be further examined and a determination made.

“The Troika of Ministers is scheduled to meet by the first week of March to further assess the status in view of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Ausc Region 5 chief executive officer Stanley Mutoya in a brief interview from his base in Botswana.

“The Games were postponed from December 2020 to December 2021. We are therefore making plans for the Games to be held. Dates are 3 to 12 December 2021 in Maseru, Lesotho. We are scheduled to have 11 Sport codes : Athletics, Basketball (including 3×3)  Boxing, Football, Gymnastics, Judo, Netball, Swimming, Taekwondo, Tennis and Volleyball,” said Mutoya.

The AUSC Region 5 Youth Games are hosted every two years. Hosting by member countries is on a mandatory rotational basis in alphabetic order.

The Games have been held consistently  since the inaugural tournament in Maputo, Mozambique, in 2004.

The Games will attract over 2 000 athletes if they go ahead.