Committee set to speed up NSS, Rufaro refurbishments
THE Government has set up a committee to speed up refurbishments at Rufaro and the National Sports Stadium for the Warriors to play their home games in front of their supporters.
Acting Minister of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture Jenfan Muswere made the revelations yesterday after a tour of the facilities by Vice-President Kembo Mohadi.
The entourage also assessed Magamba Hockey Stadium and revealed afterward that all of the major facilities in the country will receive attention as part of the Government’s policy of “leaving no one and no place behind.”
Minister Muswere said the Government was mobilising resources to correct the anomaly that got Zimbabwean stadiums banned by CAF and FIFA.
As a result, the Warriors have been forced to play their home games in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers on foreign soil.
The Warriors are set to host Lesotho in South Africa early next month, having previously played host to Nigeria in Rwanda late last year.
After hearing presentations from the custodians of Rufaro and the National Sports
Stadium, Minister Muswere said the government has since set up a committee to ensure resources and time-lines are met for the completion of the renovations.
“There are time-lines and we have tasked all the teams handling the National Sports Stadium, Magamba Hockey Stadium to come up with a second option in terms of how best we can accelerate the completion in terms of the refurbishment of the facilities.
“We have set up a committee to look into that. The City of Harare led by the Mayor (Jacob Mafume) will be submitting their financial requirements and technical gaps that we need to work on together.
“So I’m pretty sure that before the end of this week, I will have all these reports. I will then forward these to the office of the Honourable Vice-President so that a decision can be made in terms of fulfilling the financial requirements.
“All that will be determined by an alternative plan which seeks to accelerate the refurbishment of all these sports facilities.
“So we have two plans, the original plan and this programme which seek to accelerate the refurbishments, the time-lines, the resources required, the technical assistance.
“Before the end of this week I will have the plan, then we can then sit as an inter-ministerial committee to avail resources to work on the technical details, working together with the engineers from the respective cities,” said Minister Muswere.
The National Sports Stadium and Rufaro have been closed for international football for the past few years. Rufaro has opened for local football competitions only after renovations while the National Sports Stadium is still struggling to get back to a functional state.
The government is also looking at the provision of sports infrastructure in schools and colleges.
“Of course, there are several developments, but the priority is the refurbishment of the existing facilities. We are working together with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and, the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education in terms of university facilities, and primary and secondary education facilities to support sport.
“We all know that sporting facilities have got to be developed at community level and also at primary and secondary school level so that we can then deal with the educational issues related to career development.
“Career development has got to start from primary and secondary,” said Muswere.