Zimbabwe Minister of finance and economic development, Mthuli Ncube has offered his full support for sporting activities undertaken by the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation.
Together with his cabinet colleague Kirsty Coventry, Mthuli Ncube recently toured the Mufakose Youth Interact Centre, a Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation the Ministry recently revamped and help expand with new facilities.
As the COVID-19 pandemic increased, the government availed $20 million of the COVID-19 relief fund package to help and motivate athletes and artistes, with each industry receiving $10 million respectively.
So far, the Sports Ministry has managed to construct a multi-purpose court, basketball court and a netball court. The ministry has also been looking at resuscitating old community centres and have targeted 40 such centres across the country, this year.
When Minister Ncube was briefed on the criteria for applications he said: “I am very impressed with the development, and the state of the art facilities that I saw today, and all the other facilities that I have been shown.”
“After witnessing such marvellous work may I take this opportunity to assure the Minister of Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation, Honourable Dr Kirsty Coventry, that I am going to support this concept to reach community centres, which will be benefiting our youth,” continued Minister Ncube.
The Minister said he was aware of the programmes that the ministry was running and he was willing to go out of his way to support the youth in sports. He also mentioned that the government was going to look into this Ministry and consider options such as tapping into the devolution funds, for similar projects.
“My Ministry is going to prioritise a proposal on establishing state-of-the art Youth Interactive Centres like this one throughout the administrative districts in Zimbabwe. In this regard, I would channel more resources to support this noble cause as youth, athletes and artists constitute the largest demographic population,” Ncube said.
During a question and answer segment, the Sports Ministry highlighted the need for the Minister to assist in the importation of sports equipment.
“In terms of equipment for sport, we have the same challenge in art, what we need to do, and I was just explaining to the Minister a little bit more, the struggle is tat there is a legislation , that says sport equipment, and equipment for artists, should come in duty-free. However,the Minister promised to support us and we trust him,” explained Kirsty.
