The ManicaPost
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
SAKUBVA and Dangamvura suburbs will be a hive of activity this weekend when the seventh edition of the rebranded Love Shouldn’t Hurt Mai Hondo Sports Tournament rolls into life starting tomorrow.
Venues for the Under-15 boys and Under-18 girls football as well as netball competitions include Sports Oval, Ellis Gladhill, Sakubva Primary School, Dangamvura Beit Hall Ground, Nyamauru High School and Zamba Primary School, where the finals will be played.
Love Shouldn’t Hurt Mai Hondo Sports Tournament chief associate, Blessing Mutsaka, narrated the various activities that are expected to take place during the two-day event.
He outlined the main aims of the annual sports competition.
“The major thrust of this tournament is to reach out to as many youths as possible with positive messages and services related to sexual and reproductive health. Tied to that is the ‘Give me a chance, I am not a wife, I am a child campaign’, where we are strongly discouraging child marriages.
“Our partner, Populations Solutions for Health (PSH) will be championing sexual reproductive health with services such as cervical cancer screening, male circumcision, positive health lifestyles messaging and other sexual reproductive health services, so we are very excited with this partnership.
“We have also added netball to the list of sporting activities. We had boys and girls football competitions in the past, but we thought that by adding netball, we will be able to attract other participants who could have been sidelined in the past,” said Mutsaka.
The rebranded annual sports competition will also see celebrated musicians, Mambo Dhuterere and Freeman taking to the stage to entertain attendees.
Mutsaka said: “Another addition to the tournament is the musical entertainment aspect that has been brought in courtesy of PSH. We will be having live performances from Mambo Dhuterere on Saturday (tomorrow) and Freeman on Sunday.
“We think that these artists will attract more youths to the event. These musicians have songs that encourage girls’ school attendance and anti-gender based violence messages as well as discouraging early marriages.”
Group A, which consists of La Sakubva, SAFA, Tendai Strikers and Binga Academy will have its matches at Zamba Primary School Ground, while Group B will have its matches at Sakubva Primary School Ground, comprises City Vellos, Good Shepherd, I A M Mbare and Vengere Stars.
Sports Oval Ground will host Group C matches, where Sheckon Stars, City Strikers, Ebsa and Bindura will battle it out for a ticket to progress to the next stage of the competition.
PStars, FC Reactors, MAJESA Academy and Masvingo Academy make up the list of teams in Group D which will have its matches played at Elise Gledhill School Ground.
