Chronicle Editor
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
BULAWAYO Chiefs’ women’s team and developmental side have started using their new home, AmaZulu Sports Club, for training and friendly matches, while the facility is awaiting a major facelift.
Chiefs officially took over AmaZulu Sports Club last month on a five-year lease from the Bulawayo City Council.
The ambitious Bulawayo-based Castle Lager Premier Soccer League club began by clearing overgrown grass at the facility, which had been idle for more than a decade.
They are now waiting for the engineers’ reports before starting on revamping AmaZulu Sports Club.
Dumisani Mantula-Sibanda, Chiefs’ secretary, outlined their plan to turn AmaZulu Sports Club, which they will later rename to either Chiefs Kraal or Chiefs Village, into a multi-purpose facility that will meet Caf requirements for continental club games.
Chiefs want to first set up a training ground behind the main stadium, which they will use for training as well as games for their women’s team and developmental side, while working on uplifting the main arena.
Mantula-Sibanda said the amount of investment they want to put into upgrading AmaZulu Sports Club goes beyond the five-year lease and they will engage the local authority in due course for possible extension.
“Our girls have started playing here. In the long run, we need to negotiate with council for a lease extension because if we’re to develop this facility to the level of Mandava Stadium (Zvishavane) or Baobab Stadium (Ngezi), we need to pour in substantial amounts.
To enjoy the fruits of our development, we might need a lease longer than 15 years.
“Our dream is to play here, have this facility able to meet minimum Caf standards and let the facility be available for other Bulawayo clubs. In as much as it is a Bulawayo Chiefs facility, it should be able to serve Bulawayo.
“Once the engineers finish coming up with their report, that will shape the way for the project. In a way, the project has started because the engineers and architects are already working,” said Mantula-Sibanda.
Unlike in the past when Bulawayo City Council leased out AmaZulu Sports Club for a long period, the local authority has decided on five-year leases after noting that tenants were not developing the facilities and at times even accrued huge bills.
The first time the AmaZulu Sports Club facility was leased out was in 1961 for a period of 25 years. The second automatic 25-year lease expired in 2011.
In 2012, council leased out the facility to AmaZulu for 10 years and the agreement was due to expire this year, but it was terminated following a number of breaches, including failure to make lease payments and to maintain the facility.
In 2018, Chicken Inn FC made a failed bid to lease AmaZulu Sports Club.
Chiefs become the fourth club to own a club house in Bulawayo after Highlanders, Zimbabwe Saints and Bulawayo City FC.
Highlanders’ club house is at the corner of Fife Street and Masotsha Ndlovu Avenue, with Zimbabwe saints housed in Queens Park East, while Bulawayo City’s home is at Crescent Sports Club in Parkview.
Mantula-Sibanda declined to comment on the amount they will invest in uplifting AmaZulu, but said: “It’s going to be a modern-day facility.
We intend to put up structures that include accommodation for some of our players because not all the players we have come from Bulawayo.
A gymnasium is going to be for everyone, but we dream to have other sporting disciplines like basketball and volleyball, but it depends on structural capacity handling.
“The reason we dream of housing other disciplines is that some of our followers are participants of certain disciplines.”
He said by securing AmaZulu Sports Club, they believe they’ll address the setback of sports development brought about by lack of facilities.
— @ZililoR
Online Reporter