BCC places AmaZulu Sports Club for lease

THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has placed the multi-faceted sport facility AmaZulu Sports Club on a tender for lease, giving interested individuals and organisations an opportunity to resuscitate the facility that was once home to one of the country's richest football clubs.

AmaZulu Football Club, synonymous with celebrated names such as Ronald Sibanda, Voster Chitema, Herbert Dick, Muzondiwa Mugadza among others, trained at the facility run by businessman Delma Lupepe.

The gold and black colours of the now defunct club are still embedded on the perimeter wall of the sports centre.

The sports club is now up for grabs, on a lease basis, together with other BCC owned entities that have been placed on tender for lease.

The closing date for the tender was on 25 June and was open to Bulawayo residents only, with a proven capital capacity, individuals or organisations that would afford carrying out repairs or improvements on the facility at their own cost.

AmaZulu Sports Club was best known for its well kept facilities that included a football pitch, volleyball and basketball courts and track cycling as well as a sports bar at its prime.

After the football club was disbanded in 2004 after refusing to play on Saturdays, the sports centre soon became an eyesore with overgrown grass, lack of maintenance on its multi-sports code facilities.

With the applications for the tender closed, talk of some politicians and powerful businessmen using proxies to apply for the lease and turn it into a one-stop leisure centre have surfaced.

In 2017 a popular annual show, the Kalawa Homecoming party, was held at AmaZulu Sports Club.

The successful applicant will operate the sports club for the next five years.