LOC of All Africa Games owns up on Ghana’s accommodation woes
The Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the 2011 All Africa Games has accepted responsibility for the acute accommodation problems that confronted Ghana at the event.
Penalva Cezar, Deputy Director and Spokesperson for the LOC told a Press Conference in Maputo that even though they insisted on Ghana making payment of participation of $150,000 before being given flats at the Village, they were overtaken by events when other countries occupied some of the flats illegally.
According to Cezar, some countries exceeded the number of athletes they registered for the Games and therefore occupied the flats reserved for others, hence the unpleasant situation.
Cezar said this caused the acute accommodation problems that Ghana’s contingent had to cope with and the LOC was compelled to relocate members of Ghana’s contingent who could not secure a place at the Village in Matola, a superb of Maputo, which is a one and half hour drive depending on the nature of traffic in the town.
The LOC Spokesperson, however, gave the assurance that other members of Ghana’s contingent will be accommodated at the Games Village by Saturday, September 10, since according to him to they have managed to create more space at the Village.
Cezar noted that they are taking steps to fish out countries that flouted the rules governing the competition and the culprits will be sanctioned accordingly.
“Every country has fixed number of registered delegates and paid for that as well, but we determined some difficulties and we are dealing with the situation.” Cezar said.
He said the process could take a longer time, because most of them are competing in the Games but gave the assurance that the situation will be handled effectively and at the right time.
Commenting on the general organisation of the competition, Cezar expressed satisfaction with the level of success so far, saying “we are very happy with the event so far, the delegates are happy and the competition has been a success so far in the last six days.
“Accommodation, transportation, catering services indeed all departments of the competition have been generally good and we hope to chalk more success in the coming days.” Cezar added.
It would be recalled that Ghana has since the commencement of the event struggled with accommodation for some of its contingent, as some athletes had to cope with the chilly weather outside the Games Village, whilst others had to be moved far away from the main Village.
The situation thus caused some disruptions in the coordination of training programmes and participation in some competitions, with some coaches citing it as a bane to their success in the competition.
Source: GNA