Plans to renovate Kamuzu Stadium still on

Malawi Government has said while the focus has shifted towards the construction of the state-of-the-art stadium in Lilongwe, plans to rehabilitate the fallen giant Kamuzu Stadium are still on the cards.

Youth Development and Sports Principal Secretary Alex Mseka was responding to a question on the silence relating to the rehabilitation of the facility.

“We want to see if we could do triple p [public, private, partnership] or government takes it up, but you know that we have a major project here in Lilongwe and that is the priority in terms of resources.

“Nevertheless we have proposed in the next budget to continue with rehabilitation [that includes repairing the flood lights] and we’ll see what comes up,” said Mseka.

He also said the plans are to demolish and rebuild the upper part of the stands which were deemed a risk to the lives of people.

However, Mseka could not state how much the project will cost.

“We are looking at bringing in someone to do the quotation but it should cost not less than K500 million,” said Mseka

Last year, Youth Development and Sports Minister Enoch Chihana hinted that the facility’s major rehabilitation work would start in January, but four months down the line, the project is yet to start.

“If we will do it through the triple p, then a normal tender procedure will have to be carried out and it takes a bit of time,” Chihana said then.

The upper parts of the affected stands were cordoned-off to enable the facility to host games.

Recently the world football governing body Fifa approved FAM’s request to host the 2014 World Cup qualifiers at the stadium.