‘Corruption, greediness derail NSS development’

CORRUPT and greedy officials derailed Government’s plans to give the National Sports Stadium a facelift to meet international requirements.

Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister, Kirsty Coventry, was left disgusted by corruption she saw when she came across inflated figures for renovations of the National Sports Stadium that were presented by third parties.

Coventry, speaking at a Zimpapers Group organised workshop that ran under the theme; “It’s time to make Zimfootball exciting again” revealed that she couldn’t append her signature after noting that work that was supposed to cost US$7 million had ballooned to US$19million before commencement.

Through their ZTNPrime, the Premier Soccer League’s official broadcasting partner, Zimpapers partnered top sports broadcaster Supersport to capacitate local clubs on Monday at Harare Country Club.

The Sports Minister also revealed that the crooked officials also scared away private players who wanted to assist in sports infrastructure development, blasting City of Harare councillors for allegedly demanding bribes in the botched Rufaro Stadium facelift that was supposed to have been carried out by giant energy company Sakunda.

“On stadia, we’ve been trying to get the National Sports Stadium renovated for the last three years. The first attempt ended up with a lot of bureaucracy, with a lot of corruption.

Things that were tendered out and were given back, I think that they (Ministry officials) think Ministers don’t read things but when I requested to read some of the documents that were sent in, (noted) we were not using any reputable companies.

They were third parties and basic things that should cost around US$200 were about US$3 000 to US$4 000. So the inflation went from renovating the stadium which should have cost us about US$7-8 million, which Government had already set aside to US$19 million. So we turned the tender down and started afresh,” said Coventry.

The celebrated Olympian gold medalist allegedly fell out of favour from people within her Ministry for pulling off the plug after picking up the inconsistencies in National Sports Stadium tenders.

“I had to go to His Excellency (President Mnangagwa) and say, ‘this is ridiculous and I’m not part of it’ and he fully accepted and we walked away from those tenders because legally we could prove that the figures were so highly inflated,” Coventry said.

The National Sports Stadium has been closed to facilitate for work to be done on the facility that has its turf worn out due to over use by Premier Soccer League teams.

Eight clubs, Dynamos, Caps United, Herentals, Yadah, Cranborne Bullets, Black Rhinos, ZPC Kariba and Simba Bhora have been using the National Sports Stadium for their Premiership matches.

The water reticulation system at the giant stadium also needs attention.

The outcome of work being done at the National Sports Stadium should be visible after three months, meaning clubs in Harare have to look for alternative venues outside the capital.

“So, the last few months we’ve recollected ourselves, we’re working with a reputable company that build the soccer stadium in South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Johannesburg.

We’ve put together a proper step by step plan of what needs to be done and right now there’s a feasibility study being undertaken. We’ve an incredible corporate that has come on board to help with those things, who at this time will remain confidential.

“The idea of the feasibility study is to uplift the entire area, not just the stadium but to look at the possibilities with hockey, originally step two, three and four which were not completed there. There were meant to be bucket seats, apparently they were delivered but they went. They didn’t make it to the stadium.

“So, all those things are being looked at, the process is a bit slow because everyone that’s dealing with it now has been burnt and wants to make sure that everything is being followed correctly.

“We’ve to get it right. I’m not someone who’ll get something a quick fix and that’ll be followed up in two-three months time with a scandal,” said Coventry. — @ZililoR