US1m used for Rufaro refurbishment

HARARE City Council says it used just under US$1million to refurbish Rufaro Stadium after turning to its own employees and in-house expertise to reduce the higher costs of outsourcing.

The venue is expected to pass compliance tests by the ZIFA First Instance Board ahead of the commencement of the 2024 Premier Soccer League season.

It last hosted a league game in 2019 and the ground has been continuously failing to meet the minimum set standards to stage top-flight matches over the years.

It has been given a significant facelift with the municipality addressing faulty water reticulation, erecting aluminium goal posts, putting together standard changing rooms as well as redoing the playing turf.

The VIP car park has also been done while electronic turnstiles are expected to be erected in the coming days.

And the work has cost the council around US$950 000 to complete.

Harare mayor, Jacob Mafume, said:

“You know when the figures were being brandished, some were talking of US$50 million, US$100 million just to get soccer to be played at Rufaro.

“But we have taken a practical approach to say we have got employees, we have the expertise and we said let’s look at ourselves and do the work.

“We were basically procuring the material needed and using our own employees and at times getting outside expertise where we didn’t have ours in-house.”

The ground was scheduled to be officially opened by a massive Harare derby pitting Dynamos and CAPS United in the Mayor’s Challenge Cup yesterday.

But the organisers were forced to shelve the fixture after Dynamos expressed reservations on playing at a stadium which had not been certified fit by relevant authorities.

Mafume, though, said the game could still go on this Sunday if the FIB, which was expected to inspect the stadium, deems it ready to host top-flight games.

“The changing rooms have been done to a reasonable degree of satisfaction. The public toilets are being revamped. We are in the process of widening the turnstiles gates and the contract for the turnstiles is going on.”

Mafume said the City of Harare will embark on phase two of the development work at the stadium at the end of this season.