Minister of Sport and Recreation Makhosini Hlongwane  has urged the local organizing committee for the revised and rebranded Zimbabwe National Youth Games to vigorously sell the games’ brand to the corporate world.

He said there was a need for the local organizing committee to understand the value of business in sport while also reminding the business community that investment in sport was the safest destination for any business person as it was neutral and had little or no political risk.

Minister Hlongwane was speaking during the official launch of the Games at the Edmund Davies Hall in Hwange on Friday evening.

“From the 17th of August, Hwange town and indeed Matabeleland North province is going to play host to 14 000 athletes and 3 000 technical officials and that gives you 17 000 people. All of these are going to leave their monetary eggs in Hwange and that is quite a lot of spend so these games have a huge economy of their own and they present an important opportunity to the business community in Hwange. If we don’t create horizontal synergies with the business community by explaining fully the value of the Games that we are bringing to this town so that they buy into this very important Government project, we will suffer in areas that we are not suppose to suffer from,” said Minister Hlongwane.

He said if the Games brand is not sold properly to the business community, there might not be full conceptualization of the jamboree, themselves a deliberate Government strategy.

“I want to urge the local organizing committee to understand the value of business in sport and I am going to give you figures to illustrate my point. In 2015, $520 billion exchanged hands in football alone, this is on a global scale, you can  do a relative scale applicable to our country  given the amount of spend in our country every weekend on account of sport.Sport is the safest destination for investment for any business person because  it is neutral , there is no political risk by investing in sport. Sport is one site where we are all brought together as Zimbabweans of all  colour and we are unified as one nation by the movement of sport and recreation. This is the place to be,” said Minister Hlongwane.

He said the business community must start getting involved in the Games now instead of at the end of the process.

“If these Games are to be taken advantage of by the business community, its important that the business community gets involved now and not at the end of the process. That part involves the rehabilitation of the infrastructures in Hwange and I am very confident that this is going to be the case, yes we have a short period of time remaining to the commencement of the Games but I believe very strongly that it is possible to spruce up those facilities that we have seen,”  Minister Hlongwane said.

The Minister, who undertook a tour of the sporting facilities in Hwange moments before the launch of the Games on Friday, said the mining town was endowed with immense sporting facilities which needed a few touch ups for them to be of standard.

This year’s Games will have 22 sporting codes, up from the generic eight.

The 22 sporting codes.

Athletics, basketball, boxing, chess, cricket, cycling, darts, football, golf, handball, hockey, karate, netball, pool, rowing, rugby, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis, volleyball and weightlifting.

@skhumoyo2000.