HARARE City Council-owned football stadiums Rufaro and Gwanzura are likely to stay in their rundown state as the local authorities have insisted they are currently not in a position to finance the renovations.
The council’s head of education and social services, Lizzy
Muchena, revealed to The Herald yesterday that the local authorities are
overwhelmed on the health services front mainly because of the Covid-19
pandemic and do not see the sprucing up of the facilities as a priority at the
moment.
The two stadiums, which have been closed down several times
for renovations in the last few years, have become an eyesore due to prolonged
neglect.
Concerns have been raised over the collapse of the City
Council-owned stadiums but it seems it will be some time before there are
tangible results to talk about with regards to the renovations.
Muchena yesterday said the Harare City Council’s current
financial situation has slowed down the refurbishment works. She, however, said
attention will be given to the grounds once the financial situation improves.
“The renovations at Rufaro have been hampered by the
financial situation in the Council and it’s not a priority right now because
health is the number one priority. We also have refuse collection and roads
that needs to be done first before we even start to talk about the stadiums.
“So for the stadiums, as soon as the financial situation
goes back as it used to be, (we are) going back to the stadiums. But right now
they are not a priority,” said Muchena.
The debate about Rufaro renovations was rekindled after our
sister paper, Kwayedza, posted a picture online depicting the current state at
the ground’s gates.
The open area outside Rufaro has become a dumping site for
garbage while pools of water have been building up because of poor storm
drainage.
Commenting on the upkeep of the facilities, Muchena said
their staff is overwhelmed as they have had to cut their workforce in line with
the Covid-19 regulations.
“(For) The general maintenance, we have scaled down to the
bare minimum in terms of staff as per the Government’s directive in terms of
the Covid-19 health regulations. So it’s just basic maintenance being done.
“It’s all part of refuse collection, if you notice the
refuse collection is lagging behind, so it’s just part of that.
“It (Rufaro) will be cleaned as part of the programme for
refuse collection. I am not sure about the current state of our refuse
collection because it’s (done by) another department. But it’s part of their
programme to clean up and I understand they will soon be focusing on Mbare
especially.
“So as soon as they start, it will be part of the Mbare
clean-up programme for the refuse collection department. They are only doing
basic maintenance,” Muchena said.
However, this is not the first time issues of the
maintenance of the facilities have been raised and the City Fathers need to
come up with a permanent solution to avoid the embarrassing scenes at their
facilities.
“So you find that sometimes you only have one person doing
a lot of community work because we don’t have the usual numbers on the ground,
including for refuse collection.
“As part of the renovations, we are going to be putting a
wall around that whole parking area at Rufaro Stadium, that is our plan,” said
Muchena.
While renovations by the City Council are taking long, the
Government has made some progress on the refurbishment of the National Sports
Stadium, following the bombshell from CAF which saw all of Zimbabwe’s football
grounds being condemned after failing to meet minimum requirements.
The National Sports Stadium had been under the Ministry of
Local Government and Public Works since its construction in the mid-1980s but
has since been placed in the hands of the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and
Recreation.
The transferring process is still ongoing after it was
delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Ministry was also given the
permission to manage Magamba Hockey Stadium, Aquatic Complex and Khumalo Hockey
Stadium. Herald
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