INDIVIDUALS who offered their houses as accommodation facilities are up in arms with organisers of the just-ended National Youth Games held in Hwange over non-payment of services rendered. They are owed in excess of $70 000 while others have been left wallowing in astronomical debts.
BY LANGTON MWINDE
The government-backed games saw a record of 4 000 athletes from the country’s 10 provinces being housed in various schools in and around Hwange district.
Other technical and senior officials were accommodated in private homes dotted within the coal-mining town, with the bill supposed to be met by the Ministry of Sport and Recreation following a directive to reduce athletes’ affiliation fees by more than 80%.
Affiliation fees were initially pegged at $100 per athlete by the Matabeleland North local organising committee that was to cater for both accommodation and feeding of athletes so that they did not rely on government benevolence.
“The Ministry of Sport forced us to reduce affiliation fees to $30 and it was later slashed to $20 per athlete on the understanding that a grant would be availed by government towards the upkeep of athletes and other related issues,” said an official who declined to be named.
According to stipulated rules and regulations governing the operations of the National Youth Games, the host province is expected to meet all the accommodation needs of senior officials accompanying the participating teams as well as competition directors, among others.
More than 200 technical directors and provincial managers were accommodated in private homes in Hwange as the only functional hotel in the coal-mining town demanded to be paid upfront, thus leaving the local organising committee imploring those with available houses to temporarily lease them on the understanding that the government would foot the bill.
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Most houses were charging an average daily rate of $20 per room during the sporting jamboree that was held from August 19 to 27 2017.
Contacted for comment, local organising committee CEO, Burzil Dube could neither deny nor confirm that they owed service providers large sums of money.
“We do not discuss our financial issues through the media but the bottom line is that we are the first province to successfully host the revised games where the police, army, prison services and tertiary institutions were also participating,” he said.
However, this paper has it on good authority that the organising committee incurred a deficit of more than $250 000, with the bulk of it being for accommodation, transport, payment of technical officials and volunteers.
Due to the unavailability of suitable venues, some sporting disciplines were held in Bulawayo, Fatima High School, Marist Brothers in Dete and Victoria Falls.
The sports codes were athletics, basketball, boxing, chess, cricket, cycling, darts, football, golf, handball, hockey, karate, netball, pool, rowing, rugby, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis, volleyball and weightlifting.
