SPORTS Minister Chishimba Kambwili has assured that Zambia will be ready for the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) inspecting team in July despite construction works stalling at Mongu and Livingstone stadia.
Zambia is in the race to host the 32nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals together with Ivory Coast, DR Congo, Gabon, Guinea and Algeria.
A CAF inspectorate team is set to begin examining the soccer infrastructure with Ivory Coast this month before dating Zambia in July.
The Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola and the Heroes National Stadium in Lusaka are the only visible structures available ahead of Zambia’s AFCON bid while two other stadia in Mongu and Livingstone are yet to be built.
But Kambwili said in an interview yesterday said that Zambia was geared for the CAF inspectors despite the slow progress on the construction of the Mongu and Livingstone stadia that are expected to host some AFCON games should Zambia win the bid.
The Minister said the Ministry of Finance will finance the construction of the Mongu Stadium which has stalled owing to inadequate funding.
“We are very prepared for the CAF inspectors, in fact on Monday I had a meeting with the Minister of Finance where we discussed the construction of the Mongu Stadium and he directed the Permanent Secretary in charge of budgeting to fund the construction of the stadium.
On the part of Government, we are very committed to ensuring that the stadia that we put in the bid are constructed and we are confident that we will win the bid,” he said.
Kambwili said the Government would further allocate resources for the Livingstone Stadium in the 2015 national budget.
Voting to select the host countries for the 2019 and 2021 AFCON tournaments will be done during a CAF Executive Committee meeting in September this year.
Meanwhile, Kambwili, who also features on Ndola’s SUN FM Radio programme, said the Government was partly to blame for the low maintenance of the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium.
He said the Government was currently giving the stadium management K80, 000 as monthly grant which was too little to carry out the maintenance works on the facility.
“I apologise to the people of Zambia that the government is partly to blame for the poor management of the facility because management has been under funded and my ministry did a club memo requesting for increased funding to Levy stadium.
The stadium management should also be blamed because they hold various functions and they cannot fail to take care of the facility. As a ministry, we are not going to condone vandalism at either Levy or Heroes National stadia,” he said.
And Kambwili hinted that K200, 000 in the 2015 national budget was earmarked for the refurbishment of the Mpatamatu Stadium in Luanshya.
He said the move was the spirit of promoting sports across the country.
This is Zambia’s disease. lack of preparedness whether it be FCON or UNWTO.we’re good at making bids and then withdrawing for failing to complete projects. lack of maintenance is another disease. PF wastes money on useless PMs pockets and useless bi election but fails to maintain Levy stadium. You see you can’t just rename institutions.
But now there is only K150,000 remaining, because some money was used by Kambwili to congratulate himself for a “degree”.
This BUFFOON is truly useless on one hand he is issuing statement about none construction of pointless stadia in Mongu and Livingstone AND then on the other hand he is complaing about underfunding by taxpayer’s of a stadium that’s already completed….he does not see anything wrong there.
Mongu Stadium and King Lewanika University are figments of Sata and his cadres’ imagination. There are no PF initiated projects currently under construction in Western Province.
Just advertise for naming rights to the stadiums. Levy Stadium for example can be named Airtel or MTN Arena for annual fee of K1.2 million. This is the money you should have been using for stadium maintenance.
That is beyond them; the selfsame issues facing Levy will be replicated in the Lusaka stadium and Levy Stadium’s problems will only get worse as most of its business will be robbed from it by the Lusaka stadium.
PF has very good ideas, but poor planning, I fear they will crash hard, failing to plan is planning to fail, coming up with too many projects at one time you end up not finishing any, slow down government please before you crash, we have limited resources and poor, we are not US, china or Dubai, these places have richest people in the world and higher revenue and reserves
Its not only about the stadia nokwakulala,where are they going to be sleeping in mongo???
Add training pitches to that list…they probably think they will use those grounds at the secondary and badic schools.
wena! have you ever been to mongu? no wonder u ask such silly questions. inge iwe, where do u slep. dont u knw mongu is advanced we chinangwa iwe. waba ito …loshi. pipo seem to be scared everytime they hear anything about mongu. yaba! usikuba ahulu wena sanganu. nja yama hali hali.
Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe should apply to hold as one. Aren’t we sister countries?
….and the final should be played at the Calamitous & Disastrous Heroes Stadium
##Goncalves, you have a point. that is how many stadiums are maintained overseas. Our leaders just know about naming buildings without thinking about maintenance issues. Even if Levy name is maintained, they should have main sponsors with banners raised around the inside stadium like we see with international tennis. Mulamu has raised a good point about accommodation. How many hotels do we have in Ndola and worse Mongu?
Now you are confident that you will be ready, because of the new borrowed money. A stadium which will be half empty in Mongu and Livingstone, will not pay back the money even if given a life time to pay paid the investment. PF where did you learn priority setting kashi
Thats good Kambwili. We will show the inspectors the bare land in Mongu and Livingstone, but we shouldn’t tell them that its not our periority. Its just a campaign strutage. We have to improve the standard of living of our many poor Zambians first. Ni donti kubeba pa zed
meant campaign strategy
@ Jay Jay, what do you mean by the BUFFOON? Are you one?
Build the stadium in Kitwe and Livingstone and not Mongu
Ask Kambwili what will happen to Indeco, if the Govt is failing to just maintain a stadium. We told these chaps (PF) that they are overzealous on issues of governance that they have no clue about. We have also told them that Govts have no business in business except as referee. The Govt should float bids for someone to run the business of stadia not Govt. We are critical of PF because we do not want to be stagnant in development. Sata will insult you (PF MPs) left and right until you turn red in your faces because he has nothing to loose. He (Sata) thinks building a nation is just road here new district there etc. No SIR! it is more than that. Human beings are at the centre of Development so build them first don’t break them that is true leadership. [More corrupt than the word…
someone want to improve your lives and you are busy passing useless comments. i pity you God help us