Author: SULEIMAN JONGO
AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE government has pledged to sponsor local athletes in the country to make sure that they excel in the international competitions.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Arts, Culture and Sports, Hassan Abbas said recently that gone are the days when it was traditionally used to see the government only presenting national flags to the departing teams, which represent the country in the international competitions without giving out funds.
“The government will also start sponsoring sports industry in the country,” “We will be not only presenting the national flags to our teams when they depart, but also giving out funds to make sure that they have a smooth participation in the international assignments,” said Abbas during the NBC Marathon that took place in Dodoma recently.
He could not however go into further details of how much has been set aside principally for the supporting of national teams. “The new CCM manifesto stresses on this and we will not let you down,” he said.
Dr Abbas, who is also the government’s Spokesperson said that he will start visiting all national sports bodies to discuss other issues, how the new CCM’s manifesto will be fully implemented.
“All sports bodies will be attended, be it a darts or any other,” he told the Vice-President, Samia Suluhu Hassan who was the chief guest at the event.
The government was in the past rarely supporting sports bodies financially, when they send teams to the international competitions, because it could not manage to do that to all bodies due to lack of enough budget allocated for the ministry responsible for sports.
The ministry is also responsible for the development of other sectors, including that of information, arts and culture, apart from other budget needed to run day to day activities of the ministry.
Abbas, has, however called upon other private and public institutions to support sports development in the country.
“The government appreciates the continued support of private and public sector in the supporting of sports development in the country,” “Sponsorship in sports is key element for the sports development, without sponsorship no sports development,” he said.
Lack of a reliable sponsorship in sports has been a key factor for the teams’ poor performance in the international assignment as several others have been shying away from competing for lack of funds.
Other major international assignments, which locked out local teams is the Olympic Games as sporting bodies fail to send their respective athletes in the qualifying series, hence denying the country chances of winning medals.
For example, ahead of next year’s Tokyo Olympics, only two runners have so far qualified as boxers will have their final qualifying series next year, but may not manage to travel after they failed to do so during the February’s qualifying series.
