The Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation of Zimbabwe, Hon. Kirsty Coventry welcomed the AUSC Region 5 Chairman, Dr Veii and CEO, Mr Stanley Mutoya in Zimbabwe.

The Chairman of AUSC Region 5, Dr Veii and CEO, Mr Stanley Mutoya visited the Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation of Zimbabwe, Hon Kirsty Coventry. The purpose of the visit was to induct the minister about AUSC Region 5; the role and responsibilities of the countries as members and to visit a site that has been earmarked to be establish the AUSC Region 5 Sports Museum.

The Regional Sports Museum is along standing dream and vision of AUSC Region 5. The concept will see the establishment of a sports museum that will host artefacts and the entire sports history of all 10-member countries under one roof.

The benefits of hosting such museum will have enormous impact on economy of the host country.

“There is a lot of work ahead of us, but we are very excited . . . Sport in our region, in our continent can be used very successfully to rebuild a country and to rebuild not just a country, but to rebuild what we are seeing with our youths so that our young people can value themselves. For the last few weeks I have seen young people being used to do not very good things and I believe a lot of that is because they are a little bit lost and it’s up to us as a ministry, as Government to help them find that path of being successful and knowing that they have a lot of self-value.

“And that’s something very important when we are dealing with young people and sport,” said Hon.Coventry.

The AUSC Region 5 Chairman, Dr Veii said, we are here to see of the environment of hosting the museum will meet the Region 5 requirements and expectations. The dream of establishing a Regional Sports museum is a long-standing dream. We have not had one country which really confirmed to host it, so, therefore, we put up a bid for the different countries among the 10 members to see which one would be prepared to host it.

“Then Zimbabwe offered to host and Zambia also offered to host.

“Therefore, we are here to see the environment in Zimbabwe, whether it will meet the requirements and then after that we also will see what’s in Zambia.

“And then we will take it back to the executive committee for a decision to be taken where we are going to have this museum.

“The requirements really, we want to have a museum which is accessible to a lot of people. We don’t want it to be, for example, in an isolated area because we really want to market sports,” said the AUSC Chairman Dr Vetumbuavi Veii.

Mutoya said the induction will see them taking the minister through the key fundamentals of the region.

“The CEO and Secretary-General of the region is mandated to ensure that the ministers that join the region are eased into business of the region, so that they also appreciate and are able to run with the business from a policy point of view, a governance point of view and a programming point of view. “So, having welcomed honourable Dr Kirsty Coventry into the region, it is one of the tasks that the secretary-general has to do, that’s why I am here to then walk with the honourable minister on the key fundamentals of the region. So, we do the induction for all the ministers,” said Mutoya. They are today set to tour the National Sports Stadium, which is earmarked for the regional museum.