The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
THE Hwange Local Board (HLB) is seeking a facelift of its sporting infrastructure and has targeted the revamping of Nengasha Stadium through a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) arrangement.
According to the HLB e-newsletter, the local authority is seeking partners to assist it refurbish its football stadium into a modern facility to provide upmarket social amenities to residents.
HLB housing and community services officer Runyararo Tshwapa said the local authority was in the process of courting a potential investor to enter into a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) arrangement for the reconstruction of Nengasha Stadium into a modern facility.
“Our expectations are to have the stadia being turned into a modern facility, with proper terraces, where possible we can even have bucket seats. We are also looking forward to having a state-of-the-art and fully-equipped dressing rooms,” she said.
Runyararo Tshwapa
About five years ago Kincard International College of Sport Science, Research and Technology made an undertaking to reconstruct the stadium but the move did not materialise as the company reportedly did not keep its end of the bargain.
“At the moment we’ve got a standing agreement with Makomo (Resources) to maintain the stadium. However, owing to suspension of all sporting activities including soccer due to Covid-19 outbreak, it hasn’t been doing so. We however, expect it to start doing so soon since things are slowly normalising,” said Tshwapa.
Makomo Resources renovated the stadium’s dressing rooms and erected a perimeter fence around the facility in-line with the requirements of hosting Division One soccer matches.
The coal-mining company’s soccer team, Makomo Football Club plies its trade in the Zifa Southern Region Division One League and uses Nengasha Stadium as its home ground while the stadium is also home to a number of local lower-tier league teams.
Tshwapa said the local authority was aware of potential revenue to be generated from the stadium if it were to be fully utilised thus the decision to have it upgraded.
“We see the upgrading of Nengasha as one of the low hanging fruits in our quest to increase our revenue streams.
Our intention is to make sure the stadium plays host to high profile soccer matches involving Premiership sides. We are also looking at it being hired for concerts,” she said.
Tshwapa said the scope of the stadium upgrade also entails ensuring availability of water for watering the pitch and installation of floodlights.
“We need to have a readily available source of water. As such we are exploring two options, one being to drill a borehole while the other one, is to set up a waste water reclamation plant to enable us to water the pitch. We want the revamped stadium to also have floodlights as well as a parking bay outside the stadium,” she said.
