The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Hassan Abdullah
11 September 2008
Zanzibar's Deputy Chief Minister and the Minister for Information, Culture and Sports, Ali Juma Shamhuna urged sports bodies not to bank heavily on corporate sponsorship.
The deputy Chief Minister released that statement before members of the press soon after the end of Great Lakes sports ministerial conference held in the Isles. He said leaders of the bodies should plan ahead their activities and devise programmes that would work without much dependence on donation from sponsors.
"It's high time now the Zanzibar sports bodies do away with entire dependence on corporate sponsorship or Government when it comes to implement programmes", said Shamhuna.
He said the mere fact that the conference was staged in Zanzibar is an indication that sports personalities are capable to alleviate poverty through commercialisation.
"Several African countries have made huge leap in development as a result of their innovative sports leaders who have devised programmes that have been positively implemented", said Shamhuna.
He said most of the countries in the Great Lakes region are ahead of Zanzibar in sports development due to commitment of their sports leaders.
"Our soccer standard is poor when matched with other countries in the region", said Shamhuna.
The two-day conference opened by Zanzibar President Amani Karume was sponsored by UNESCO.
He made a call to all sports bodies in the Isles to work with a hand-in-glove cooperation with the Government to attain good results.
He said the bodies should fully implement the new sports policy endorsed by the Government to revive dormant games.
"We will be crawling while others are running should the sports bodies bank heavily on corporate sponsorship to develop talent and daily undertakings", said Shamhuna.
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