Bulawayo council identifies three sites for stadium

THREE locations in Cowdray Park, Emganwini and Killarney have been identified by the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) as possible sites for the construction of a new state-of-the-art stadium that conforms to Fifa and Caf standards.

This came to light at the Barbourfields Stadium renovation project tour yesterday.

Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Responsible for Monitoring Implementation of Government Programmes Dr Joram Gumbo led the tour.

Bulawayo Provincial Affairs Minister Judith Ncube and Deputy Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Tino Machakaire were among senior Government officials that accompanied Minister Gumbo on the tour.

Minister Gumbo who expressed satisfaction with work so far done, asked council officials about sites identified for the proposed new stadium.

The director of Housing and Community Services Dictor Khumalo said Cowdray Park, Killarney and Emganwini had been identified as areas where the proposed stadium could be built.

"We are in the process of creating dialogue to come up with the most suitable site for the construction of the new stadium but those are some of the sites that we are considering," he said.

Calls to demolish the iconic Barbourfields Stadium built in 1950 grew louder early this year after the Confederation of African Football (Caf) banned Zimbabwean venues including Barbourfields for not meeting the continental body's requirements.

Barbourfields had provisionally been cleared to host international matches before an inspection in November last year.

The Confederation of African Football last month granted a temporary reprieve for the usage of the National Sports Stadium while Barbourfields Stadium remains banned.

Minister Gumbo, however, commended BCC for the work they were doing to ensure that Barbourfields meets the required standards to host international matches.

"From what we saw during the tour, commendable progress has been made which should save us the embarrassment to play our home matches in neighbouring countries. I wish to make the point that the upgrading, renovation and maintenance of our sports facilities should not be a once-off event but should be systematic and continuous," said Minister Gumbo.

He said Government was committed to supporting projects that benefit the people as that is in line with its 2030 targets.

"Government is fully aware that the pandemic does not bode well for project implementation under the 100-day cycle programme in respect of funding and delays. I would like to commend you for taking advantage of the Covid-19-induced lockdowns to accelerate the renovation of this facility and as a result you are likely to meet your target," he said.

One of the major outstanding challenges at Barbourfields is the issue of bucket seats.

Deputy Minister Machakaire said the issue was under control.

"We cannot have people from other places coming in to supply the bucket seats. We have qualified people in Zimbabwe who can do the job. We need Bulawayo people to supply the bucket seats for Barbourfileds. As you saw today the samples are there, they have done the tendering process and everything, so we are just waiting for council to finalise everything as well as the release of funds then the work begins," said Machakaire.

Short term outstanding work at Barbourfields include the installation of the flood lights, renovating changing rooms, installing bucket seats, CCTV and Turnstiles integration and work on practice grounds whose estimated cost is $ 73 million.

Areas that have been completed include installation of air conditioners, refrigerators, televisions, furniture and a conference room and sound system, renovations have also been done to the changing rooms, press conference room, meeting room, media rooms, match officials rooms and lounges.

Upgrades were made to the team benches areas (dugouts), signage leading up to and within the stadium was done.