NEW: Rufaro challenge excites Tagwirei

Online Reporter

PROMINENT businessman, Kuda Tagwirei, toured Rufaro Stadium on Tuesday afternoon to get a first-hand appreciation of the work that needs to be done at the dilapidated ground, which will soon be renovated by Sakunda Holdings.

The energy company and Harare City Council – the owners of Rufaro Stadium – are in the process of finalising a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which will see Sakunda Holdings receiving a long lease for the Mbare facility.

Rufaro, which is the traditional home of Harare giants Dynamos, has been unused for some time now as it failed to meet professional standards, forcing DeMbare to use the National Sports as an alternative venue.

Touched by the poor state of the facility and the resultant negative impact on the community, Sakunda Holdings who are also the prime sponsors of Dynamos, as well as Highlanders, approached Harare City Council to take over the ground and renovate it on a lease.

While the lease agreement is being finalised, Tagwirei toured the stadium, with officials from Sakunda Holdings, to get a feel of what really needs to be done.

They were led by Harare City Council acting Town Clerk, Pakhamile Moyo.

“This (Rufaro) used to be, when I started working, one of the places where you would find rest from a busy schedule.

“You would sit here and watch Dynamos particularly CAPS United and Highlanders as they battled it out on this ground.

“So, it is a tragedy for us to really make it go to waste,” Tagwirei said.

He revealed that the plan is for Rufaro to be renovated as “quickly as possible” so that football games can return to the Mbare venue.

Sakunda Holdings officials and some architects will soon go to South Africa for a benchmarking exercise.

“Our vision as Sakunda is to assist you (Harare City Council) in your vision to enable this to be part of the community that allows people within Harare and even Mbare to come and participate, have some place to rest and enjoy themselves as they entertain themselves in this place.

“We have got a program that we have laid out as Sakunda which we are sharing with you continuously and which starts with visiting other stadiums in the region, with finances allowing any other places that allows us to see the kind of international standards that are required to have a modern facility.

“So, we are hoping that starting early April we start visiting these facilities,” said Tagwirei.

He added: “From a structural perspective I think the Stadium (Rufaro) is okay.

“We just want to put other improvements to it that allows us to be able to enjoy comfortably, watching soccer or any other games that you might want to be played in this stadium.

“My hope and prayer is that we will be able to accomplish this as quickly as possible in a phased approach that allows us to first entertain the PSL and ZIFA programs within the stadium and then go on to international programs.

“I am excited by challenges such as this, you will see that we will all enjoy it as we participate together in this program.

“This is not a Sakunda project, it is a Harare City and Sakunda program.

“In fact, it is a Harare City project and we are just there to ensure that the dream that you have becomes successful, becomes realisable so that we can all move on as a society.

“I pray that this is going to be a fruitful joint venture, and we are going to do many other things together,” said the businessman.

Acting HCC Town Clerk, Moyo, explained the lease process.

“The MOU is in the process of being finalised, but basically the art of the MOU comes from the scope of the project.

“We are still working on the scope, after the MOU we will sign an MOA which will determine the length of the lease,” said Moyo.

Sakunda official, Nqobile Magwizi, emphasised the importance of Rufaro Stadium to the community.

“The next phase will be an environmental and social impact assessment which must be carried out as quickly as possible.

“We went through to Ground Number 7, and we saw how the vendors are doing.

“We need to assess that first because this is a community project,” said Magwizi.

“Once that is done, then we engage our feasibility study which obviously will bring out all the scoping on what needs to be done.

“The sewage system, the electricity supply, drainage system, all those issues will be seen through the feasibility study.

“We are going to try and move fast, because this is a critical facility for the community.

“As you may be aware this ground has not been used by the PSL, we need to get this facility up and running at the possible shortest time,” he said.