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Sports bodies urged
GOVERNMENT has urged sports federations to find a sustainable way of raising money to support the growth of sport in the country.
.Speaking during a PF interactive forum in Lusaka, Minister of Sports Youth and Child Development, Moses Mawere said the 2018 budget did not support other sports disciplines other than football.
“Let’s find a sustainable way of raising money to support sport in the country. Because tomorrow if Government says they have no money to send the handball team to Morocco it will be another disaster.
“We need to find a sustainable way of supporting sports outside the central treasury that is sustainable. Sport world over is supported by the corporate world and that is what we need now, time has come for us to realise that,” Mawere said.
Responding to a question on why Government had neglected the national handball team which travelled in groups and was reportedly stranded in Rwanda where it went to participate in the 2018 International Handball Federation-IHF Continental championship, Mawere said it was unfortunate that the team travelled in groups for the tournament. He said Government tried to raise funds for the handball team but failed due to its demanding needs.
“We made a decision. If you look at the budget, the budget we have in our yellow book for 2018 is only football. There is no budget for other sports disciplines but as a ministry we requested from the Ministry of Finance to allow as to validate or divert part of the football budget to other sports disciplines which they agreed.
“Government has a lot of demanding needs and sometimes most of us who are seen to be in a social decision making category suffer. When we request for the money from the Ministry of Finance, the ministry of finance said they had no money because they had to pay for other demanding needs like paying civil servants and that’s how you saw the team going in groups which wasn’t good because the team was representing the SADC region. They were the champions,” Mawere said.