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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter

The Sports and Recreation Commission has said it will formally inform the Government on Thursday that all sporting codes are ready to resume activities.

SRC chairman Gerald Mlotshwa, board members Nigel Munyati, Karen Mutasa, Titus Zvomuya and Allen Chiura, addressed a virtual press conference on Monday and emphasised that the onus was on individual National Sports Associations (NSAs) to prove that they can financially sustain their activities.

“The Commission has since written to the various sport associations. As the SRC we feel it’s high time the country returns to full sporting activities. We hope by end of the week the sporting associations would have responded then we will the approach the Minister (Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation) and say these high risk sport codes are now ready and it’s our recommendation that they be allowed to resume. It may not necessarily be all of them, but we are looking at them holisticly to say let’s deal with you at one go and we move along those lines,” said Mlotshwa.

Chiura said the proposed bio-bubble concept has been scrapped.

“We realised that the bio bubble concept was unsustainable financially for the associations so that will no longer be the case. We will, however, still adhere to strict health protocols in terms of WHO guidelines.

Testing at given intervals for the athletes and officials will still be  mandatory. As SRC, we are lobbying for our athletes in the medium and high risk to be vaccinated upfront so that we can resume with confidence,” said Chiura.

Munyati said they were not in a financial position to bail out sports associations, but were hopeful that organisations like Zifa, which received Covid-19 relief funding from Fifa, had not misappropriated those funds.

In its letter to the 29 medium and high risk national sports associations, the SRC said no sport code can perpetually remain as medium and high risk.

“The sports and Recreation Commission wishes to advise that the Government through the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation plans to resume all sport in Zimbabwe. We believe the medium or high risk sport does not remain medium/high risk in perpetuity, but may become low risk where the degree of risk of transmission can be mitigated. The risk of transmission of Covid-19 where there is reasonable frequency of testing, vaccination and stringent protocols is low.

“The resumption of all sport shall be guided by the prevailing World Health Organisation guidelines for the prevention and containment of Covid-19. As a result the SRC is sharing with your association proposed Standard Operating Procedure and further proposed conditions for the safe resumption of sport for your consideration. This is in addition to your own respective Covid-19 protocols as guided by your international federation,” reads the SRC letter.