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Kazembe Kazembe

Lovemore Zigara in Gweru
SPORT, Arts and Recreation Minister Raymond Kazembe has said Zimbabwean sporting facilities must meet international standards.

Officially closing the Youth through Education Sport (YES) festival in Gweru on Sunday, Kazembe said Midlands should take the lead in coming up with world standard facilities as the province prepares to host the National Youth and Paralympic Games next year.

“As we host these games, we must bear in mind that we are developing athletes who should be able to compete at a higher level and this calls for the local organising committee to ensure that sporting facilities are of international standard. I therefore appeal to the organisers not to leave anything to chance,” said Kazembe.

Midlands Provincial Minister, Owen Ncube, said the province was in the process of ensuring sporting facilities are up to standard for the 2018 games.

“The YES games have given us an opportunity to assess the capacity of the restrictive sports structures to steer next year’s games, which shall attract 10 000 athletes and officials. Cognisant of the task ahead of us as a province, my team and I have hit the ground running and have already started refurbishing and construction of state-of-the-art sport and recreational facilities to host the 2018 combined games,” said Ncube.

The YES festival attracted 1 049 athletes from the country’s 10 provinces, who competed in football, volleyball and netball.

Although the YES games ended on Sunday, results were still not available by yesterday, with a member of the local organising committee, Simon Masaka, saying ratification of the final results was being done in Harare.

YES is a community based sports initiative targeting children and young people as a platform to raise awareness on key issues impacting their lives including HIV/Aids.

The programme facilitates youth to youth engagement, human and community development through sport. It facilitates life skills training for young people, including promoting the spirit of voluntarism and self-initiative for community benefit.

It is implemented as part of Community Sport Development Programme (CSDP) in partnership with sport associations, government departments and NGOs.

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