The AUSC is among sports organs which saw most of its programmes and activities being put on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

These include the Regional Sports Awards, Marathon, 9th edition of the Region 5 games scheduled for Lesotho but moved to next year.

After the games were moved to 2021, new approaches have also been implemented by the region’s 11 sports confederations to avoid the interruption of the 2022 edition set for Malawi.

AUSC Region 5 Chief Executive Officer, Stanley Mutoya underscored the need for sports bodies to change their mindset when approaching these games.

“We don’t want the games to be an event anymore. We want to ensure that they become a conveyor belt. They become a whole continuum in the whole ecosystem of sport to then spark the development of high performance under our podium performance programme. We don’t want to see a team that goes to Lesotho in 2021 and is suddenly thrown away then there is another team that goes to Malawi in 2022. There are a whole of issues in terms of resources. Countries have been hit so hard by the Covid 19 with economists predicting that it’s going to take between 5 – 8 years for countries to recover from the impact of this pandemic. So as a sports industry we also need to ensure that we partner the governments so that sports continue to happen but within acceptable costs,” he said.

The region is set to hold elections on the 27th of next month to choose new leadership for the next four years.

Mutoya also indicated that efforts are in progress to work with Zimbabwe to meet the inauguration of the Regional museum target that has been pegged for the end of the first quarter of 2021.