At a Maputo press conference on Wednesday, Penalva Cesar, the deputy director of the Games Organising Committee (COJA), confirmed the disappearance of the Ethiopians. He said it was the head of the Ethiopian mission himself who had informed COJA that they had gone missing.
Cesar did not name any of the vanished Ethiopians, or say whether they were athletes or other members of the delegation.
According to the COJA website, Ethiopia sent 171 athletes to the games. But a closer look at these figures shows that they do not add up. The COJA figures give six Ethiopians in athletics, six in badminton, 12 boxers, 10 chess players, eight cyclists, seven in karate, one in sailing, 14 swimmers, three in table tennis, one in tennis and 13 in taekwondo – which is a total of only 81.
Cesar said that when the COJA security sub-commission was informed of the disappearance of the Ethiopians, it informed the relevant authorities who are looking into their whereabouts.
“If they do not reappear by Sunday, when the games end and their entry visas expire, they will be committing a crime, since they will be in the country illegally”, said Cesar.
Of course, they may no longer be in Mozambique at all. If the 15 really have used the Games as an opportunity to escape from Ethiopia, it is entirely likely that they have slipped over the border into South Africa.
According to Cesar, COJA has accredited 4,982 athletes from 46 countries, competing in 21 sports. But the COJA website only lists 39 participating countries – one of which, Malawi, was expelled for failing to pay its accommodation fees.
Cesar also announced that the Mozambican Football Federation (FMF) has been charged with organising the closing ceremony of the Games on Sunday, which will be attended by Mozambican President Armando Guebuza.
“In establishing this partnership with the FMF, we want to take advantage of its experience in organizing major international matches”, he said. “We think this will guarantee that a greater number of our citizens will attend the ceremony”.
The snag is that the tickets cost 50 meticais (slightly less than two US dollars) each, which for most Mozambicans is a significant sum. Entry to the games themselves has been free of charge – even so there has been a disappointing turnout (with the notable exception of the basketball matches, for which the stadiums were packed). Even the most prominent names in African athletics did not attract more than a handful of people to watch the track and field events.
Post published in: Sport