The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube Sunday Leisure Correspondent
MANY sports personalities across the world are known for their luxurious lifestyle, as they maintain the status that comes with being a celebrity.
They are known for living lavishly because of their mega salaries.
The highly paid sports personalities, along with entertainment celebrities, seek the most expensive items on the market, be it a car, a wedding ring, a shoe, a sneaker, champagne or cognac.
Their tastes for flashy, spacious and personalised mansions are well documented while their appetite for the latest designer wear and fashion trends has become part of what defines them.
The celebrities shop in upmarket, high-end stores where anything costs an arm and a leg. However, because of their high earning power, they write the cheque without flinching.
They club in the most expensive bars, buy high-end whiskey such as Hennessey and Johnny Walker, Blue Label among others.
Recently the internet was awash with photographs of soccer star, Emmanuel Adebayor’s mansion that looks more like a hotel. The picture also showed the Tottenham striker’s several cars that included top notch brands such as Maserati, Mercedes Benz and a Land Rover.
Adebayor’s private jet also featured in the leaked pictures along with his “collection” of sneakers.
At home we also have stars who have made it big abroad, but for those based locally salaries are not enough to enable them to live flashy lifestyles. It is not unusual to board the same kombi with a soccer player, but those who have made it in the international arena have also exported expensive tastes they learnt playing in various countries they were stationed.
While there are several players who have made it in Europe, the most popular being decorated former Highlanders and Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar, ex-Coventry City striker Peter Ndlovu and former Blackburn and Manchester City forward Benjani Mwaruwari.
Ndlovu and Mwaruwari have not disappointed in flashy tastes as they have at one time or another been the first to bring in latest car models.
Mwaruwari has, in line with the lifestyles of celebrities come up with a plan to build his “mansion” in the upmarket Burnside suburb in Bulawayo.
While he has managed to start the construction of the three-storey house that is one of its kind in the city as people hardly passes it without having a second glance, he seems to be struggling to complete building the structure.
Although the “house” has reached roof level, it has been standing incomplete for the past five years, with construction work last done before dollarsation of the country’s economy in 2008.
In its incomplete state, the house is unique and is true to the luxurious demands of the mega-rich.
A tour of the house revealed it will have an on ramp driveway that leads to the first floor where there would be a garage that can accommodate approximately six vehicles.
There would be other carports on the ground floor that can take up to eight cars, an indication the mansion’s owner has several vehicles or they are intended for the visitors’ automobiles.
The first floor would have a swimming pool and a number of bedrooms some being en-suite.
The second floor contains a wide open area, which is, reportedly the living room and entertainment section.
While it could not be established how many bedrooms the imposing structure exactly has they could range between eight and 10.
Although the house was built to roof level it is yet to be plastered and a full roof has not been installed with only zinc sheets covering part of the roof. However, some electrical installations were done but there are no plugs or switches.
A worker, who stays at the house, in a separate structure, said there had been no construction activity at the house for the past five years.
An official at Nemaks Construction, who were contracted to build the house, said they moved from the site more than five years ago when Mwaruwari stopped delivering building material.
The official, who declined to be named, said they were not sure of the exact dates when they stopped working at the house.
“We are still waiting to hear from him, he is the one who has to tell us when we can resume as we would be waiting for construction material and payments for the work we will be doing.
“I can’t put an exact value on the house now because then we were using Zimbabwean dollars but now it’s the United States dollar. We will need to do a new valuation and that would take some time but as you saw the house is one of a kind.
“It has many unique aspects, it has a swimming pool on the first floor and a garage and the fact that it is a three-storey structure is a sign of how expensive it is,” said the official.
The official said the plan was drawn by a South African-based Zimbabwean architect only identified as Moyo.
Efforts to get a comment from Mwaruwari, currently playing for Bidvest Wits in South Africa, were fruitless as he promised to call back this reporter when he would be free but he never did so and repeated calls to get him to comment received no joy as his phone went on unanswered
