Leemisa Thuseho
THE Confederation of University and College Sports Association (CUCSA) Region 5 has postponed the 2020 edition of its games due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
The games were penned in for Lesotho from 27 July to 2 August 2020.
The resolution was made during a CUCSA teleconference last week. However, the Lesotho University and College Sports Association (LUCSA) president Tšepang Mantutle told this publication that the resolution would be ratified as they are still monitoring the situation.
“We will monitor the situation in the next weeks and decide the next step,” Mantutle said.
“However, LUCSA has already opted for the postponement of the games beyond 2020 because closing schools for two months has already affected our academic calendar and we need enough time to recover the lost time.
“We foresee the possibility of schools closing late in July while there are still supplementary examinations to follow. That means we will not have accommodation if we continue with the games as planned.”
The situation is also exacerbated by the fact that LUCSA is yet to receive the funds of hosting the games from the Ministry of Gender, Youth, Sport and Recreation. The country is also yet to finalise the teams for the different sporting codes.
Initially, LUCSA had requested for M4.4 million but the budget was trimmed to M2.5 million.
The games were launched in February this year during the CUCSA annual general meeting (AGM) in Lesotho.
Lesotho is expected to host Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, eSwatini, Zambia and Zimbabwe in the games. The countries will compete in athletics, basketball, chess, soccer, netball, table tennis, lawn tennis, volleyball, karate and boxing.
The games are held biennially and this will be Lesotho’s first time to host the games.
Botswana hosted the 2018 edition while the next edition will be held in Malawi in 2022.
