The Sunday News
THE African Union Sports Council Region Five Under-20 Youth Games local organising committee will attend two church services this morning as part of a countrywide prayer day for the Games.
The loc sent out appeals to various churches and religious sectors in the country to observe the weekend of October 18 to 19 as a period of prayer for the success of the competitions.
The officials will attend an 8am service at Pastor Chiza’s Eagle Life Church while at 10am they will be at the Brethren-in-Christ Church.
The Games director of marketing, Kennedy Ndebele, said they had received positive responses from various churches they wrote to, seeking prayers from the religious communities for the success of the Games.
“The request is open to all religions because we understand as a country we have different faiths. Some of our officials will be at the Eagle Life and Brethren-in-Christ for the prayers after an invitation from the churches. We hope those we wrote to will put the Games as the focus for their services today (yesterday) and tomorrow (today),” he said.
The Region Five Games will be held in Bulawayo from 5 to 15 December and 11 countries are expected to converge on the province for the bi-annual event.
“We fully appreciate that Zimbabweans are a predominantly religious society. If we pray with unity of purpose during the Games we are guaranteed that they will be a success,” Ndebele said.
The sporting showcase, formerly known as the Zone Six Games, were inaugurated in 2004 in Mozambique following a Council of Ministers of the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa (SCSA) Zone VI meeting held in 1997 in Cabinda, Angola. On 7 September, 1999 during a special meeting of the Zone Six Supreme Council for Sport in Africa in Johannesburg, it was agreed that the Games be held bi–annually on a compulsory and rotational basis by the member states.
The Games have since been organised and hosted by Mozambique 2004, Namibia 2006, South Africa 2008, Swaziland 2010 and Zambia played host to the fifth edition in 2012.
The aim of the event is to use sports to achieve peace, integration and unity in Africa and sport as a vehicle for encouraging people to develop and come together irrespective of colour, economic status, political inclination, class or gender.
