Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe instructed the Commissioner General of Zimbabwe Police Republic, Augustine Chihuri to arrest and detain the whole Zimbabwean Olympic Team members immediately they arrived the Harare International Airport on Tuesday, August 23.
Zimbabwe which is one of the countries in the Olympics without a medal presented a team of 31 athletes. The closest any of the athletes came to win a contest was at the 8th position.
Mr. Mugabe who is incensed with the team’s performance told the Police Chief to arrest all the team members and detain them.
“We have wasted the country’s money on these rats we call athletes. If you are not ready to sacrifice and win even copper or brass medals (referring the 4th and 5th positions) as our neighbors Botswana did, then why do you go to waste our money” he said.
”If we needed people to just go to Brazil to sing our national anthem and hoist our flag, we would have sent some of the beautiful girls and handsome guys from University of Zimbabwe to represent us.”
He added that, the money invested in the team to represent the country could have been used to provide amenities and build schools.
“This situation is like an impotent man who is married to five women, what is the essence? I will make sure we share the cost across board for all of them to pay back to government chest even if it takes 10 years to recoup, now it turns out to be a soft loan we have given them to go and visit Brazil as tourist, they are useless” he concluded.
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Zimbabwe denies report Olympics athletes arrested for winning no medal
Source:Xinhua
Published: 2016/8/26 20:32:11
The Zimbabwe government on Friday denied that President Mugabe had ordered the arrest of the country’s Olympics team for failing to win medals during the Rio Olympics.
Principal director of the Ministry of Sport and Recreation Benson Dube told Xinhua that the story was false and probably the work of social media.
The story that appeared on a Nigeria news website said Mugabe was not happy that the 31-member team had failed to win any medals and had instructed police commissioner general Augustine Chihuri to arrest the athletes on their arrival home.
“President Robert Mugabe has reportedly ordered the arrest of the entire Zimbabwean Olympic team for failing to win a medal at the just concluded 2016 Rio Olympics,” the site said without giving the source of the information.
The site also alleged that Mugabe had ordered the athletes to repay government money used to finance their trip.
The Zimbabwean team competed in seven events of the 2016 Olympic Games – archery, athletics, equestrian, football, rowing, shooting and swimming, and the locally based athletes are now back home.
Apart from the women’s hockey team which won gold in the 1980 Olympics, Kirsty Coventry, hailed as the nation’s greatest athlete, won gold, silver and bronze medals in the 2004 Olympic games in Greece and a gold and three silver medals in the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing.