Maphisa Independence venue 98 percent ready ahead of Uhuru celebrations

PREPARATIONS for this year’s main Independence celebrations in Maphisa, Matabeleland South, are now 98 percent complete, with only final clean-up work and debris removal remaining at the venue.

This year’s Uhuru celebrations will be held under the theme: “Zim@46 – Unity and Development Towards Vision 2030.” The theme is both reflective and forward-looking, deliberately linking the liberation legacy to Zimbabwe’s contemporary development ambitions.

More than 50 000 people are expected to gather at the venue, where President Mnangagwa will lead the commemorations with a keynote address.

Speaking in an interview at the main celebrations venue, site manager Engineer Sean Mukwamba said it was all systems go ahead of Saturday’s event.

“In terms of preparations for the celebrations on Saturday, we are 98 percent done. The remaining two percent involves cleaning up and removing debris from the site. We have completed the pitching of tents for both VIPs and the public,” said Eng Mukwamba.

He said ablution facilities are already in place, with only a few electrical installations left to be finalised before the event.

“For electricity, systems have already been put in place. There will be multiple redundancy systems for power. Besides the main power supply, we have about three generators on standby,” he said.

Water provision has also been adequately addressed. A total of six 20 000-litre tanks have been installed for irrigation, along with three additional 20 000-litre tanks dedicated to maintaining the stadium turf. Furthermore, 15 drinking water taps have been set up across the venue.

“All water infrastructure has been installed by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa),” said Eng Mukwamba.