Livingstone Mtetwa
CHIPINGE- Driving from Chinheya to Gaza High School is a smooth sail on a tarred road with a few potholes to glide upon; however as you reach the school gate, the tarred road ends and you start rumbling in the heavily potholed dust road.
About 150 metres along that road to your left, you notice a freshly constructed solid bar security fence commonly referred to as “palisades” which extends right round about the stadium compound and a fading ‘Welcome to Gaza Stadium’ billboard.
It took council almost seven months from March 2022 to refurbish the facility, with final touches to the fence being done in October under a week ago.
Acting town Secretary James Mutemera confirmed that indeed the refurbishment of the stadium is underway.
“The renovations for the stadium are underway and the first stage which is fencing is now complete. We are now moving towards the second stage which is developing the internal infrastructure,” said Mutemera.
Chipinge ward 6 councillor Lovemore Mutimwii attributed the delay to financial constraints.
“It is true that the refurbishment of Gaza Stadium has unfortunately taken a long time. However, this has been due to financial constraints. At one point the contractor who was contracted to erect the palisades abandoned the project citing late payment by council and work stopped for almost seven months,” said Mutimwii.
He also said that the low fees that are being charged to those who want to use the stadium are the reason for its poor standards.
“I would also like to inform the public that we are unable to up the stadium’s standards because we are charging sub-economic rates to the users.
“And, lastly, the stadium is now vastly dilapidated that we need a huge capital injection to bring it back to the required standards,” he added.
Gaza stadium boasts of being the biggest stadium in Chipinge district where most of the crowd drawing events like the Independence Day, the Defence Forces Day, musical galas, rallies and church gatherings are held.
