The Sunday News
Mesabe Ncube
THE African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 Games that end today have been described as an early bonus for businesspeople in Bulawayo after bringing about financial relief to a number of entrepreneurs at a time when income sources are distressed in the country.
AUSC marketing manager Mr Kennedy Ndebele told Sunday Business that they placed tenders for people to take up the business opportunities availed by the games.
“The people who responded to the tenders and paid registration fees are the ones who were selling food inside the games arena,” he said.
Mr Ndebele said staging the games had left the country with a lot of modern equipment that will not only benefit the country in sports development, but in the field of business as well.
Among the various sporting arenas that were renovated are Barbourfields, White City and Luveve stadiums; Bulawayo swimming pool, Bulawayo Athletics Centre, Hillside Teachers College, Bulawayo Polytechnic and Bulawayo City Hall.
While Mr Ndebele said the games committee had not yet had time to look at how the games had impacted on local business, local hotels said they had recorded increased revenue due to the influx of guests in the past two weeks.
“We haven’t had time to relax in the days leading to the start of the games and during the games. Now the guests are clearing slowly but the pressure is not yet over,” said a senior official at Cecil Hotel.
The Treger Group of companies marketing director Mrs Thoko Ndlovu said their organisation benefited from orders that were placed by the games’ organising committee.
“We were privileged to get orders which amounted to about US$15 000 because every sportsman in this event needed a sport bag which we were providing,” said Mrs Ndlovu.
Apart from producing the sports bags, the company was also inscribing AUSC logos onto the bags.
Florists and curio suppliers in the city centre said they were expecting busier days after the participants are released and allowed to move around.
“For now, business is not moving according to the way we expected it to because it is only the officials who are moving around,” said Mr Lethukuthula Hleza.
Among other locals who benefited from the sporting events are car owners who were paid handsomely on a daily basis for hiring out their cars to the games’ officials for errands. Fancy vehicles like Mercedes Benz, Lexus, and Jaguar are among the brands that were preferred for the varied tasks.
“I was being paid about US$150 per day for driving my own car,” said a visibly excited beneficiary who only identified himself as Victor. He added that he had just been given an unexpected chance to boost his earnings.
The 10-day sporting show saw participants flocking in from Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Seychelles and Zambia.
