Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo
Zimpapers Sports Hub
THE National Sports Stadium is not only being refurbished to meet CAF standards but a different stadium, with modern facilities, is emerging from the work being conducted at the giant facility.
The Government has been renovating the giant stadium and installed with bucket seats.Other areas, which CAF highlighted when red-flagging the giant facility including the media tribune, medical centre, disability centre, ablutions and changing rooms, have also been addressed.
There is also significant progress on the electronic turnstiles with six gates now fully fitted. The Ministry of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture, together with the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation, yesterday toured the stadium and they came out all convinced that the Warriors can host matches at the arena starting with the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers which begin in September.
Authorities are planning to invite CAF for the inspection of the National Sports Stadium in July, the time in which they have scheduled to have completed its refurbishment.
But before that, the stadium is expected to open for the local Premiership with CAPS United and Herentals already revealing they will be hosting their games there to lessen pressure on Rufaro, which is currently home to five Harare-based teams. Chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation, Farai Jere, who is also the president of CAPS United, said:
“We are very excited and we are very grateful to the Government of Zimbabwe with the way things are happening here.
This property has not actually been brought to the CAF requirements but it has been modernised, I think you have seen some of the things in the dressing rooms.It’s pressing the button and everything is working, you just press the button you just bring your finger close to this button and it’s flashing you can actually see it’s world-class, it has been modernised to the level that you cannot imagine.
“We are still going to keep on pushing the Ministry and everyone involved to make sure that we don’t relax, we don’t sit down and we fail to meet the target but by the 25th of May, we are going to have our first local match played here because all what was required for this May was for this stadium to meet the local standards.”
One of the members of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee, Innocent Benza, the president of Premiership outfit Herentals, hailed the progress at the facility.
“I’m very excited. This is a testimony and a testament of development of football in Zimbabwe. The readiness of the National Sports Stadium gives an opportunity to football teams, to Herentals particularly, because this is now our home ground,” said Benza.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture Nicholas Moyo said the stadium will tentatively open its doors to local matches on May 25 with polishing-up work expected to continue until July when authorities will then invite CAF.
“We are happy to inform the nation that the developments at the National Sports Stadium are now at the level of starting to organize our first match. The target which we were given was to finish at the end of April and ensure that in May, we have our first match.
“And I’m happy to say we are ready for the first match. We may not be at a level where all the facilities at the National Sports Stadium are at 100 percent functionality, but we’ll be able to host a match that can accommodate about 20,000 people when we do that this May.
“You can see the pitch, you see the water reticulation, you can see the sprinklers that are actually working. We have toured, we have seen the changing rooms. The contractor is confident that in the next two or so weeks, the changing rooms will be done.”
