DOUBLE DERBY RAKES IN OVER E55K FOR GOVT

● PLE wants it reviewed, Sports Ministry says nothing new

MBABANE – The Ingwenyama Cup semi-finals have generated over E55 000 for government.

Based on the total gate takings from the Sunday semi-finals, which took place at Somhlolo National Stadium, government is set to receive a share of E55 000 from the over E500 000 that was collected.

Green Mamba secured a 3-2 victory against Young Buffaloes in one semi-final, while Mbabane Swallows triumphed 3-0 over Mbabane Highlanders in the other semi-final, with over 11 000 fans in attendance. It has transpired that after the gate collections were counted, a total of E555 074 was collected and 10 per cent of the total gross had to go to the stadium levy, which equated to E55 507.40.

The Ministry of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs, Communications Officer, Sibongiseni Zondi, said nothing was amiss about the funds set to be received by government. “The 10 per cent levy has always been there and is nothing new. It is a requirement by government for any selling event at the stadium and these funds go directly into the government Consolidated Fund. All stakeholders who book Somhlolo National Stadium are aware of this statutory fee,” Zondi said.

Meanwhile, Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) Chairperson, Mark Carmichael, said they were aware of the stadium levy, but expressed their dissatisfaction. He stated that they had written to the government for it to be reviewed, but had not received a response as yet.

Prior

“The issue of the stadium levy has not been addressed yet because for almost four years we have had no access to Somhlolo National Stadium as it was undergoing renovations. Prior to that, there was COVID-19 so there was no levy that was charged on teams because fans were not allowed. We had addressed it before, but now that Somhlolo is available and we might book it more, we will try to engage with government on this,” Carmichael said.

He also mentioned that while he understood that this was a worldwide trend, the levy is for the maintenance of the stadium and other related costs. “At the end of the day, it is an open secret that our teams rely on gate takings and to take the little that they collect from the gate takings,” he said.

The PLE chairperson expressed hope that the new parliamentarians and Cabinet in place would consider reviewing this levy for the national stadium.

He added that the bigger goal was for Eswatini’s mother of all sporting fraternities, football was to have stadium or teams to have playing venues. However, he mentioned that while the situation was like this, they would have to depend on venues from the government or other venues from companies or organisations.