The African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 leadership is currently in the country where they intend to convene a number of meetings to focus on enhancing collaboration and strategising for the advancement of sports, recreation, and cultural initiatives within the region as well as setting up a regional museum at the National Sports Stadium.
AUSC Region 5 chief executive officer Stanley Mutoya held a press conference at the Harare International Conference Center (HICC) last week to update the media on the mission’s objectives and the prestigious events taking place.
The visit by the AUSC Region 5 will include the official opening ceremony of the gathering that will bring together key stakeholders from across southern Africa, among them being CEO of sports commissions/councils and their chairpersons as well as directors of sport; permanent secretaries in the ministries responsible for sport as well as the AUSC Region 5 Troika of ministers at the HICC on Wednesday.
There will also be the regional museum launch on Friday at the National Sports Stadium, with the cultural night festival being held on the same day at Heritage Village.
Mutoya explained the objective of the visit of the regional sports body to Zimbabwe.
“We are looking into ensuring that we have got a people that are physically active, in line with what our heads of state and government have defined in Agenda 2063, the Africa that we want. One of the things that are there embedded in our AU policy, is that we must create an active Africa. So issues of agility become keys in terms of driving sport,” he said.
“The African Union was given the task to revitalise sport and harmonise it. The process took us a couple of years and on the 26th of July 2013, in the city of Abidjan in Cote d`Ivoire, the Fourth Conference of African Ministers of Sport met and then made a decision to now dissolve the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa to replace it with a body that is now referred to as African Union Sports Council.
“The current leadership of our council of ministers right now is chaired by the minister of sport from the Republic of Namibia, Honorable Chongareru, and the Vice Chairperson is the minister of sport in Mozambique, Honorable Mendis, and the third member of the TOICA, or the rapporteur, is the minister of sport in Malawi, Honourable Mkandawire. So, this is the leadership that drives the ship in terms of the sport-related business” said Mutoya.
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AUSC Region 5 is one of the five regions entrusted with the responsibility to develop sport under the African Union.
It consists of 10-member countries namely Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
