Arusha set for AUSC Ministerial meeting

All is set as Arusha hosts the fourth African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Ministerial meeting today.

The high-level four-day meeting will be graced by Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa.

Also in attendance is the Minister for Culture, Arts and Sports, Pindi Chana and a host of other dignitaries from AUSC Regional IV member countries.

Briefing reporters here over the weekend, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Sports, Saidi Yakubu said preparations for the high level meeting have been completed as they waited for delegates to start arriving in the city.

“We are happy to be granted the privilege of hosting the meeting after we had initially expressed our interest to do so,” the PS explained.

According to Yakubu, fourteen nations have so far confirmed to participate in the high-level meeting.

The nations are Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan.

Others are Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and the Seychelles.

“The meeting will see the ministers discuss a raft of issues, chiefly being how to collaborate on improving sports and culture on the continent,” he said.

The meeting comes when Tanzania has made significant strides in sports, according to Yakubu.

Such a meeting was last held in 2018 in Kampala, Uganda but took a long hiatus, following Covid-19 outbreak.

Based in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the council is a specialised Technical Office of the African Union responsible for sports.

It was established through the endorsement of the Statute of AUSC by the Assembly of African Heads of States and Governments in 2016 and it has a mandate of coordinating African Sports Movement and being a forum for concerted action between Member States for the promotion and development of sports and development through sport in Africa.

It also focuses on promoting sport as a fundamental human right to be enjoyed by all.