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Senior Sports Reporter
MINISTER of Sports, Arts and Culture Andrew Langa will this morning meet the Bulawayo business community to brief them on the progress in preparations for the December African Union Region Five Under-20 Games to be held in the city.Kennedy Ndebele, the local organising committee marketing officer said Langa will brief the meeting on the progress in developing sporting facilities.
Ndebele said in order for the event to be successful, the corporate world should be involved in the preparations.
“The Minister will take the opportunity to engage the business community whose support is crucial,” said Ndebele.
The 15 Sadc member states will participate in this growing Regional International Games and the government has already pledged its full support. A massive investment has been made to boost the sports infrastructure in Bulawayo to create world-class facilities.
“It is important for the corporate world to partner with the government in ensuring a successful event that will leave a lasting legacy.
The Local Organising Committee’s resources have since been boosted by those from the department of Sports, Arts and Culture and the committee is working flat out to meet the deadline to complete the preparations,” Ndebele said.
Seven venues have already been identified and will soon undergo facelift to meet the required standards. Bulawayo Athletics Club will be used for tennis, White City Stadium will cater for athletics, soccer and netball, Bulawayo Municipal Swimming Pool is the venue for swimming, ZITF halls will be for basketball, judo and boxing. Hillside Teachers’ College and Bulawayo Polytechnic will be used as Games Village and command centres respectively.
Barbourfields, Luveve and White City stadiums were also set to receive facelift ahead of the games although that plan now looks unlikely given the time factor.
Barbourfields would have seen its seating capacity increased from the present 24,000 spectators to between 30,000 and 35,000 while two more changing rooms were supposed to be built to bring the number to four.
The stadium, it was hoped, was going to have an oval shape as the open spaces between stands were to be joined.
The VIP stand was also set to be renovated to meet international standards while at Luveve Stadium, the present dressing rooms were supposed to be changed into public ablution facilities to accommodate close to 60 people at any given time.
New modern dressing rooms with lockers and bathing facilities were to be built on the western side which is also where the VIP stand will be located which will also have a shade.
Barbourfields will be used for the opening and closing ceremony as well as finals for girls and boys soccer.
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 engineers and will be demolished and proper ones built. A new warm up track for the athletes will be built outside the stadium.
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