Byo reaffirmed as Region Five Games host

Sikhumbuzo Moyo  Acting Sports Editor
THE Chief Executive officer of the local organising committee for the 2014 Sixth Supreme Council for Sport in Africa Region Five Games has allayed any fears of underhand initiatives to shift the December Games from Bulawayo to Harare.There had been fears that plans were underway to take the bi-annual games to Harare as there had been little if any visible preparatory work on the ground with statements by the chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Sports, Temba Mliswa, causing further anxiety.

Mliswa reportedly demanded to know why the Games were brought to the second largest city in Zimbabwe instead of Harare where better facilities exist already. The legislator said this when the Ministry of Sports, through its permanent secretary Thokozile Chitepo, appeared before his committee.

Henry Manzungu, the local organising committee boss said there was no going back on Bulawayo hosting the Games in December.
Said Manzungu: “We’ve just been waiting for the disbursement of funds to kick-start the renovations. We’ve been assured by the parent ministry that there was no going back on the games being held in Bulawayo. Zimbabwe made a pledge to have them here and the region expects us to have them here.”

He said his committee was expecting funds to be released anytime from then and remained confident that their budgetary expectations would be met. The committee has a budget of $46 million.

“If it means people working 24 hours a day to meet our October deadline, so be it,” said Manzungu.
The Games’ official launch was supposed to have been held last year but had to be postponed following delays in announcing the 2014 budget.

Seven venues have already been identified and will soon undergo facelifts to meet expected standards with the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) set to be the biggest beneficiary as it will see the construction of a residential complex to accommodate 4,000 athletes and officials.

Bulawayo Athletics Club will be used for tennis; White City Stadium will cater for athletics, football and netball; while the Bulawayo Municipal Swimming Pool will host swimming, with the ZITF Halls are earmarked for basketball, judo and boxing.

Nust and Bulawayo Polytechnic will be used  as the games village and command centre  respectively. According to the plan, Barbourfields, Luveve and White City Stadiums will receive massive facelifts ahead of the Games.

Bulawayo’s ceremonial home of football, Barbourfields, will see its sitting capacity increased from the present 24,000 to between 30,000 and 35,000 while two more changing rooms will be built.

The stadium will have an oval shape as the open spaces between stands will be joined. The VIP stand will also be renovated to meet international standards while at Luveve Stadium, the present  dressing rooms will be changed into public ablutions that will accommodate close to 60 people at any given time.

New modern dressing rooms with lockers, bathing facilities will be built on the western side which is also where the VIP stand will be located. It will also have a roof.

Barbourfields will be used for the opening and closing ceremony as well as finals for girls and boys football. At Luveve Stadium, the dressing rooms will be at the western end.

White City Stadium will have the cycling track demolished so that the athletics track has eight lanes as per international standards.
Terraces at the stadium were condemned by the city’s structural engineers and will be demolished and proper ones built.

A new warm up track for the athletes will be built outside the stadium.