Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Collin Matiza
18 September 2008
Harare — THE Zimbabwe Olympic Committee, still basking in the glory of the four medals that swimmer Kirsty Coventry reaped at last month's Olympic Games in Beijing, China, are now looking at establishing an Olympic Park as part of their expansion programme.
The Olympic Park, to be built in Harare, would, apart from accommodating the new ZOC headquarters, have other facets such as the Olympic museum and library.
It will also have a multi-purpose indoor complex, hostels for national sports teams in camp and sports specific facilities for training athletes, including a medium-sized stadium.
This ambitious programme was revealed yesterday by the ZOC chief executive, Robert Mutsauki, who said they were currently engaging the City of Harare to secure a land lease for the Olympic Park "as well as to establish a viable partnership with the city authorities".
"The concept of (building) the Olympic Park involves having everything under one roof for improved efficiency and effectiveness as well as an enhanced visibility and impact," Mutsauki said.
The establishment of an Olympic Park by ZOC comes hard on the heels of the construction of additional office structures at their headquarters in Belvedere, Harare.
The construction of the additional office structures at the ZOC headquarters, which started on August 1 and set to be completed on November 30, are almost complete with the building at roof-level.
"The construction is right on schedule. We are now at roof-level and we are just waiting for the trusses to be put in place. They are being made by the manufacturers and after that they (the builders) will put the roof and do some internal work," Mutsauki said.
The International Olympic Committee, through the IOC-Daimler grant worth US$100 000, are funding the project, which is also part of ZOC's expansion programme.
It (the project) is seeing the extension of the ZOC headquarters through the building of a boardroom to sit 20 people, three additional offices to cater for their expanded secretariat, an archive room for storing documents and additional toilet facilities.
Mutsauki said the full complement of the ZOC secretariat was now in place and it comprises of 10 full-time staff members.
"We have now been joined by three new staff members - Memory Pakati, the finance officer, Nomsa Mpofu, the operations officer, and Memory Mlambo, the executive assistant to the chief executive.
"It's our hope that the various ZOC organs, members and stakeholders will soon feel the positive impact and benefit of a fully-fledged secretariat in action."
The ZOC boss said they were also expecting their secretariat to be joined by an intern from the Somali National Olympic Committee who would be attached to ZOC for two months in October and November under the Olympic Solidarity-funded National Olympic Committees internship programme.
Through the same programme, ZOC have in the past two years hosted two interns - Aaron Nawuoh of Liberia in 2006 and Malawi's Naomi Chinatu in 2007.
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