THE Ngoma community in Gwanda South is transforming rural life through sport, having built a modern sports arena that promises to unlock the potential of young athletes. This grassroots initiative, born from a shared vision to bring opportunities closer to home, is already attracting schools and sporting events, signalling a new chapter of development and hope for the area.

Situated deep within rural Gwanda, the facility stands as a testament to the community’s capacity to drive development within their own area.

Initially, the project began as an effort to build a secondary school to reduce the average 12-kilometre distance that Ngoma learners had to travel to the nearby secondary schools of Tshanyaugwe and Nhwali.

This initiative has since gained widespread community support.
What started as a makeshift field has now been transformed into a modern sports arena that hosts various sporting disciplines.

Now in its seventh year, the arena has played host to the Maphumani Invitational Tournament, which has seen 13 primary and 13 secondary schools battling for honours while receiving sports equipment.

The Ngoma community says the arena has brought a sense of unity for development.

“We had no secondary school in this area, so we started to construct classrooms. As you can see, we now have a school. Our children used to drop out due to the distance to nearby schools, and they would end up migrating to South Africa. As the community, working with our children outside the country, we have taken a proactive approach to develop our area, which had a bad name,” one of the community members said.

“The sports arena is a game changer. We want our children to be exposed to various sporting disciplines so that those with talent can develop their skills. We want our area to reap rewards through sports tourism,” another community member noted.

“As Ngoma residents, we had a lot of challenges, but we are happy that our community is slowly coming out. We want Highlanders and Dynamos to play in that facility,” another community member added.

The Deputy Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, who is also Gwanda South Legislator, Dr Omphile Marupi, commissioned the facility and encouraged other communities to draw inspiration from Ngoma’s example.

“The President is clear that diasporans can stimulate development, so this facility is an example that can be emulated by other communities. We are happy that our children have been presented with a facility which will allow those with talent to nurture and develop their skills,” he said.

The Ngoma sports arena is expected to give budding sports personalities a platform to fine-tune their skills from the comfort of this rural setup.