adminEddie Chikamhi
Senior Sports Reporter
PARLIAMENTARIANS yesterday expressed displeasure with the snail’s pace at which renovations at the National Sports Stadium are being done.
This has left the country facing yet another grim prospect of having the Warriors playing their international football matches “home away from home”.
The Warriors are expected to start their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign in September and at the rate at which work the National Sports Stadium is being done, they look to once again play on foreign soil.
And the Sports and Recreation Commission, who are the custodians of the facility yesterday gave an update to the legislators, on the renovation works, which appear to have stalled for some months due to lack of funding.
Sports Commission chairman Gerald Mlotshwa and director-general Eltah Nengomasha told parliamentarians that work was still continuing on the water reticulation, pitch rehabilitation and bucket seats.
So far, 42 000 bucket seats have reportedly been ordered from China by a private partner.
Mlotshwa revealed the bucket seats will arrive in batches, with the first batch expected in the country on August 19. The installation will continue in phases until the end of the year.
Yet the Warriors are set to play three home games between September and November in Group J of the Nations Cup qualifiers, which includes five-time champions Cameroon, Kenya and Namibia.
The parliamentarians made it clear they were not amused by lack of progress at the National Sports Stadium.
Member of Parliament for Murehwa West Farai Jere, who is also the chairman of the Premier Soccer League as well as owner of local giants CAPS United, was particularly not happy that nothing seems to have moved since the parliamentary portfolio committee members last toured the ground in May.
“We seem to have a problem here. I think the updates that we are getting is the same thing we got when we toured.
“We saw the trenches that were dug in February. So, the interest of the committee is to find out if there is anything that has happened after that.
“We need to be serious when we are looking at issues of national interest because the biggest sufferers are our people out there.
“I want to find out from the SRC if they are aware that the AFCON draw came out and we are playing teams like Cameroon?
Are we saying we are going to play Cameroon away from home like we did with Nigeria?
“These are the big fixtures in Africa and it is unacceptable.
“I also seem to worry, when the Minister of Finance was in the house, I asked him about the financing of the stadium, and he spoke about the PPP (public-private partnership) and the SRC are saying they are waiting for funding from the government.
“It boggles the mind because it seems we are going in circles; we are not going anywhere. Where exactly are we? Are we really seriously about the people we are serving?
“We are here to serve the people of Zimbabwe and for them to go and watch football out of the country is not spot on,” said Jere.
In response, Mlotshwa said their PPP partner was delivering on the bucket seats but the other aspects of the renovations like water reticulation and pitch rehabilitation had stalled due to lack of funding from Treasury.
Mlotshwa revealed he was also against the idea of the Warriors playing their international matches on foreign soil, like they did in the recent World Cup qualifiers when they hosted Nigeria in Rwanda and Lesotho in South Africa.
“I certainly don’t want to find ourselves in a situation where we are playing our AFCON qualifiers in another country as has happened with the other games in the World Cup qualification,” said Mlotshwa.
“So, just to be clear, we need to look at the National Sports Stadium as requiring three things. The first one is the bucket seats
The second one is waterworks, the reticulation system, and then the third one which we have not spoken about much is the pitch itself which requires rehabilitation.
“With respect to the bucket seats, I know for a fact that the amounts required were paid for by a third party. This is the PPP that the Ministry of Finance was referring to.
“That PPP has got nothing to do with the current water reticulation work that is currently taking place or the rehabilitation of the pitch.
“Those are separate issues but effectively the bucket seats have been paid for, have been shipped and let’s appreciate we are talking of about 42 000 bucket seats.
“There was a team that flew out with the PPP partner to inspect what has been manufactured to ensure that it meets the standards that is required of our stadium.
“The bucket seats are being manufactured in batches and what has been shipped is the first batch while the manufacturer is busy manufacturing everything else that is required.
“As and when those batches are ready that is what gets shipped and that’s why the process will take three months. So, we have got bucket seats that are on the way and when we talk of three months, we are talking about the delivery of everything.
“In so far as waterworks are concerned, nothing has moved because there is a payment that is still required, and that payment is from Treasury and has got nothing to do with our PPP partner.
“The third aspect which I understand need financing through Treasury as well is the pitch. We could have that stadium ready in terms of the bucket seats, the turnstiles and everything else but we still can’t play matches there because that pitch is not up to international standards. So that also need to be financed in order to cater for its rehabilitation,” said Mlotshwa
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