Eddie Chikamhi-Senior Sports Reporter
Renovations have gathered momentum at Rufaro Stadium as the facility is now expected to be functional again starting next month after corruption had slowed down progress.
The Mayor of Harare Jacob Mafume yesterday gave new timelines for the completion of the stadium renovations, after touring the facility with Premier Soccer League chairman Farai Jere, to update him on the progress.
Initially, the stadium was expected to open its doors before the start of the season in March before the deadline was moved to end of April, in time for the Harare Derby that was played last weekend.
But Mafume yesterday revealed that corrupt activities within the council derailed progress.
“Old habits in procurement,” he said.
“People want to buy the most expensive things. Whenever a project like this is started they try to alert their relatives and their relatives start forming companies to make these things and you will be shocked by the prices. So we have cut that red tape.
“If you want irrigation equipment you know where to buy that, if you want cement you know there is Circle Cement and that cement and so forth,” said Mafume.
“It’s like there is a looting committee that was created at some place and that looting committee is very difficult to cut through because it’s agenda is to loot.
“So it is the behaviour of the people that has sort of delayed our finishing timelines. But we have pushed day and night and I am happy to see the progress and I am dead sure that by the end of this month that we will be sitting in this stadium cheering our teams to our hearts’ content,” said Mafume.
Rufaro has been condemned several times by inspectors due to lack of maintenance but there has been renewed hope after the City of Harare took it upon themselves to restore it to its former glory.
There has been noticeable improvement on the state of the pitch. Visitors are also quickly greeted by the progress made outside the main arena, where the renovations on the parking area as well as construction of a shopping complex and the perimeter wall are prominent.
The body of local stadium inspectors, which comprises members from PSL and ZIFA, has made extensive recommendations for the stadium to meet the required CAF and FIFA standards.
When the stadium was closed in 2019, the stadium inspectors highlighted nine areas which required attention before Rufaro could be allowed to host league matches.
They wanted the playing surface to be levelled, new pitch perimeter support structures and a new razor wire around the perimeter wall to be installed. They also expressed dissatisfaction over the drainage system and the ablution facilities which they wanted overhauled, as well as the expansion and upgrading of dressing rooms for teams and match officials.
The inspectors wanted the Council to provide facilities for the physically challenged and to improve the general cleaning of the stadium and its surroundings.
Other areas of concern included the lack of direction signs to the stadium as well as the spectators’ seating areas which needed to be installed with bucket seats.
The CAF inspection committee also made similar recommendations the last time they came to Zimbabwe to inspect the stadium and added more areas of concern.
These included the construction of such facilities as standard doping rooms, a medical facility, press rooms, television camera points and installation of modern electronic turnstiles.
“I am happy we have made significant progress with the stadium as you can see I am standing on lush green turf. What’s left is to cut it proper. It’s part of the things we have done soil tests, we have put in new soil and we are quite happy with the progress the turf is going through.
“We are going to do pop-up irrigation system. The system will be underground and it’s going to be popping up as and when we want to water the stadium.
“We do believe we will be able to keep the turf lush green and up to the standards required by FIFA. So our people are hard at work to ensure that it is done.
“We have already done the painting of the seats in readiness for the bucket seats. We will open the stadium anyway, before the bucket seats. “But we have done the numbering of the seats which will tell us the exactly the capacity of the stadium and we will be able to sell a seat specific ticket and that will enable teams to sell a season’s ticket, half season ticket and quarter season ticket.
“The samples of the seats we are going to use, I understand were in Addis Ababa last night and they should be in Harare tonight and we should be fixing the samples and then we will begin the process of ordering the bucket seats.
“We have expanded the changing rooms and each will now have 15 to 18 showers and we are going to do the interior deco to such an extent that each player will have their own locker to change their uniform and their paraphernalia will be well arranged.
“Onn the outside we are going to have a B-Arena which will have the same turf as the main pitch and that ground will be used for practice sessions. That area will also contain small-to-medium shops. The aim is to create a multi-purpose facility,” said Mafume.