Addressing a Maputo press conference, the deputy director of COJA, Penalva Cesar, said that work is being done with the 50 delegations accommodated at the games village, to identify those who have brought more people than they reserved places for.
He claimed that these delegations had grabbed rooms to which they were not entitled. Cesar accused those who had brought excess people of dishonesty. He did not explain why COJA had handed over the keys to these apartments to delegations with more members than they had initially registered.
He promised that the matter would be solved by Thursday, but gave no details as to the “punishment” in store for the delegations he labeled as dishonest. Despite this problem, Cesar claimed that COJA had not received any complaints about accommodation from any of the delegations.
Cesar’s claim that there are 50 delegations in the games village must raise some eyebrows. For the COJA website only lists 38 participating countries – and one of these, Malawi, was expelled for failure to pay the accommodation fees.
Cesar said that 5,268 sportsmen and women (including the Mozambican teams) are taking part in the games. The games organizers, he added, are serving 19,500 meals a day to the athletes, trainers and other staff, ensuring that the teams all obtain an adequate diet.
Cesar thanked the authorities of the South African province of Kwazulu-Natal for sending nine ambulances to support the games and a group of 50 medical staff (including doctors, nurses, paramedics and environmental health officers).
He also announced that 841 journalists have been accredited to cover the games.
Post published in: Sport