RUFARO OPENS ITS DOORS
RUFARO will open its doors on February 11 when it hosts Dynamos and CAPS United in a Mayor Cheer Fund charity fundraising showdown while renovations will continue until the stadium is allowed to host international matches.
Harare mayor Jacob Mafume said they were ready to avail the spiritual home of domestic football to its owners, the football community, once again, after years of renovations.
“At the moment, once football stakeholders
including PSL and ZIFA approve, we should be ready to host local matches.
“We are doing the changing rooms and also the toilets.
“We have all the material required for that job. What we are simply doing is fitting the material starting from this week.
“There was a bit of interruption in between but it’s all systems go now.
“Football is coming back to its home”.
He said the City of Harare have already identified Chinese contractors to work on the sitting bays with 1000 bucket seats expected to be installed in the coming weeks.
“We are putting aluminium goalposts, they are already here and the company should be here today (yesterday) or tomorrow (today) to fit them.
“The electronic turnstiles have been manufactured and we are redoing the gates to fit the turnstiles.
“We have done the changing rooms, they have been expanded and tiled.
“We will put the finishing touches in due course after consultations with the key tenants which are Dynamos and CAPS United.”
With Rufaro being ruled out for international matches, for the time being, the 5000-seater Heart Stadium could be the alternative with reports suggesting
its seating capacity will be doubled soon.
“At the moment we are putting access roads from the Mbare direction. We have also procured more bucket seats as we want to expand the stadium into a 10000-seater,” said Prophet Magaya.
“We have built this stadium with CAF requirements in mind and we are confident that once we put what I have said in place, we will be able to have the stadium cleared to host international games.
“Like what I have always said, the stadium is not mine, it’s for football and the country so we will work very hard to have it available for CAF matches”.