Mujaji chides government over neglect of differently abled athletes

RENOWNED Zimbabwe Paralympian Elliot Mujaji has challenged the government to up their support towards athletes with disabilities arguing that they have performed at par if not better than their able-bodied counterparts.

The retired track and field athlete, a veteran of four Paralympics, said the onus was on the government to start putting in the seed before the rains and celebrate a bumper harvest later in the year.

He was speaking against what he termed a disturbing trend in which more often than not, the government celebrates the success of the athletes where they would have never contributed a dime during the preparations.

Mujaji, who began his athletics journey as an able-bodied athlete, turned to Paralympics following an amputation to his hand as a result of an unfortunate electrical accident.

He made his Paralympics debut in Sydney, Australia in 2000 winning gold, Zimbabwe's maiden Paralympics gold in the 100m race. Mujaji also participated in three other Paralympics; winning another 100m gold at the 2004 Athens Games in Greece, 2008 Beijing Paralympics in China and the 2012 Manchester, London Games.

"It has been a challenge getting people with disabilities sponsorship for them to do well in sport.

It's one hindering challenge that we are facing as people with disabilities.

The government;

I wouldn't want to say the corporate world but I would want to challenge the government that they must look at us as equal to the able bodied athletes and we can do much better," Mujaji told The Sports Hub. "If you look at people who have achieved much in sport in this country, we can just call it 50-50. Look at Kristy, look at myself and who else? So, I think they have to support us so that we can do even better than what I did. We still have a lot of young athletes who need that kind of support so that they can excel. We have academies and none is supporting us. "It's not a good thing that people would like to celebrate achievements which they did not help plant, you can only harvest where you have planted some good seed but you can't be celebrating what you did not get yourself involved in that kind of project in the first place. So, we really need that kind of support from a government's perspective so that people can emulate that."

Mujaji has since established his own academy in his home, Zvishavane. He also implored the government to look seriously at grassroots activity that gave athletics the legs to stand on back in the days such as the Youth Games.

"For the youngsters, if I look at how we used to do our sport in Zimbabwe with those games that were started in 2003 and towards the end of 2015, we had good juniors who were coming up from the Youth Games. So, I think it's another avenue that will assist Zimbabwe. We used to have the Paralympics Games here in Zimbabwe and the Youth Games and with that we were bringing the young athletes and nurturing them so that in the long run with them being the future they became the stars," he said.

"However, we have since stopped doing the Youth Games. I think it's a need that they need to revamp so that we can alleviate this scourge of drugs and substance abuse while preparing stars for the future. It's really sad that our kids are falling prey to such vices. We have so many disciplines within the Youth Games itinerary and I think this will keep the kids busy and all the kids will be adequately covered all the time and we won't be crying about kids taking drugs.

“We need as well to see the corporate world coming in and assist. We have been crying day in day out, week in week out and every time for their support. We need to assist each other, we do our part as coaches but we need the corporate world to come in as well and assist us so that we can help these youngsters.

"Without the corporate world we cannot do anything, yes we can impart what we have; the training, everything but there's that unique financial, material and moral support that we need from them. After training, we need something to retain our energy that we have used during the day. So, I think the corporate world, the government need to come in and help our academy so that they can be the backbone of the country, particularly in sport."

He looks back at his competing days with pride crediting hard work and well-set personal goals for his success.

"It's been a while since

I retired from active running and from professional athletics. I retired in 2012 after the Manchester Games in London and now I have found a home in coaching. have

Icoached Shabanie Mine Athletics Club, the Midlands athletics team and I also managed to establish my own athletics academy here in Zvishavane. It's going on well, but lack of resources are my main hindrance as I aim to do well and produce national, regional and international athletes," said Mujaji.

"Doing well at such a big stage in athletics or in any sport, it all requires hard work and high self-esteem. For me I would say that I'm one person who likes to work very hard even when training with other athletes. If you are not strong, you can quickly give up. I think it was all about hard work and setting myself some goals that I needed to achieve in life and I'm happy that I managed to do that."

Mujaji is still living a healthy lifestyle despite calling it a day in athletics and encourages others to follow suit.

"Athletics or sport is very tricky and it's a good thing that we do wellness, we do a lot of things to keep ourselves healthy and fit. "Since I retired from active competition, I have never quit running and training. I do that every weekend whenever I take my athletes for some marathon running or competitions. I do what we call fun runs whenever I'm available for that particular event such as the 5km but I can't go more than 10km," he said.

"That's what I'm basically doing whenever I go for these competitions. I try to keep myself fit by doing these activities. With fun runs you won't be competing with anyone so I think it's a good training routine that I have tried to manage my body so that I try and keep myself fit and also to be able to give demonstrations to the athletes in such a good way that they will do exactly what I will be teaching them to do."