Harare (New Ziana) -The history-making Zimbabwe national netball team has received a US$50 000 sponsorship from Nedbank to enable it to participate in the World Cup finals to be played in Cape Town, South Africa in July and August this year.
Nedbank also availed a US$50 000 sponsorship to the Zimbabwe Netball League to enable it to run its operations smoothly this year.
The sponsorship for the women netball team covers uniforms, travel expenses and other related costs associated with their stay in South Africa during the course of the netball World Cup tournament.
Speaking at the signing ceremony held at the Stoddart grounds in Mbare, the deputy Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister Tinomuda Machakaire, who was represented by the deputy director in the Ministry, Ignatius Vambe, urged other corporations to come on board and support the team during its hour of need.
“Today’s event marks the culmination of the road to Cape Town Campaign, I would love to invite corporates to take advantage of the sponsorship opportunities that have been made available through the national netball team’s qualification to the World cup.
There are numerous partnership opportunities for willing corporates, we therefore invite them to be part of the road to Cape Town and the bespoke 2023 Netball World Cup,” he said.
Machakaire said the government encouraged such partnerships that contributed to national development as it was in line with the country’s agenda 2030 and the mantra “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo” (a country is built by its people).
He said it was through such partnerships that people began to understand and appreciate that sports development was part and parcel of economic development.
“As a Ministry, we believe in the empowerment of youths which in this case are the young women. We understand that when the talent of these young athletes present today is harnessed it becomes a source of livelihood for them,” he said.
Machakaire added that the “GEMS”, as the netball team is affectionately known, were raising the national flag high through their participation in international matches, at the same time helping the country in image building, which forms part of the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).
Speaking at the same event, Nedbank head of marketing, client experience and corporate affairs, Hope Marere said they were pleased to support netball as well as capacitating the girl child.
“I think we are celebrating the International Women’s Day and when you now see sport coming in and culminating in this kind of event, it’s really something to be proud of,” she said.
She said it was not a mean achievement that the GEMS were ranked 13th in the world in this highly competitive sport.
New Ziana
