National Stadium stirs back to life

Few will predict with certainty the number of people set to fill up the seats at the legendary National Stadium that will this Saturday host an international friendly soccer match between the Zebras and the Cranes of Uganda.

The match is occasioned chiefly to commemorate the reopening of the stadium that has since been closed for renovation in 2008, and finally had its soccer pitch officially handed over for use this past Tuesday. It has been a long wait. In between, promises and lies! From as early as 2010, the nation was fed with several promises of the reuse of the facility until it became clear that Batswana were being duped. Numerous dates of completion were time and again named, the ministry of infrastructure always shamed. Soon Batswana lost hope as they saw the 2010 World Cup in South Africa pass by – the same event that motivated the renovation of the sports facility.

Hope was to be restored again later that year on the eve of the September 4 clash between the Zebras and Togo – an AFCON qualifier for the 2012 finals. The BFA begged for the stadium to be availed for the match amidst spiralling suggestions that the game could be played across the border in Mafikeng. At the time, there was too much hype about the national team after supporters had been locked out of the UB stadium in an earlier clash that saw Botswana beat Chad in the qualifiers. The then BNSC CEO Kitso Kemoeng even ‘prayed for a miracle’ so that the stadium would be ready to host that Togo clash. Pressure was mounting on everybody, with the then Permanent Secretary in the infrastructure ministry Carter Morupisi sweating blood and telling everybody who cared to listen that under no circumstances was he going to risk letting the stadium be used ‘just for the Zebras game.’

A lot has happened since then. Many have come out of the saga with bruised egos; over and above the original P67 million budget, and extra P8 million has been wasted in correcting a flawed turf; the original contractor was given the boot and arraigned for legal action; some employees at the infrastructure ministry have reportedly lost jobs and positions for occasioning the embarrassment; and members of parliament strangely came down heavy on sports minister Shaw Kgathi who cried innocent and suggested that answers be sought from infrastructure minister Johnny Swartz.

Swartz has himself had sleepless nights over the project, with his ministry having refused to accept the entire stadium project from the original contractor because of a defective soccer pitch. Only in December last year did his ministry hand over the pitch job to another contractor with fresh promises that the pitch could ready by April this year. It was never to be. More dates were falsely set again, until just recently in the second week of August when the two bruised ministries of sports and infrastructure finally decided the time was truly right to declare the stadium ready for use. The first soccer match on the stadium was set for August 17, featuring Angola and the Zebras.

That failed, forcing the official handover ceremony to be postponed until it was finally done this Tuesday, where Swartz owned up to the five-year old mess that embarrassed the nation. “As we hand over this project, we want to assure all Batswana that we have learnt a lot of lessons from the challenges which we faced during its execution....  It has always been the resolve of my ministry that despite the criticisms we received for delayed completion of the National Stadium project that fell behind delivery schedule, it would however have been suicidal for us to have succumbed to mounting public pressure and took a project whose quality was unsatisfactory,” Swartz said on Tuesday.

It is now old news that the stadium has been officially passed as fit for use, and the first soccer match to be hosted there since it was closed has been confirmed for this Saturday. The last time a soccer match was played there was on a Sunday in 2008 between Township Rollers and Mochudi Center Chiefs - a game that saw Rollers annihilate  Chiefs 4-1. It remains to be seen how many goals will be scored on the occasion of reopening the 22 000 capacity arena that has already been lined up for this year’s Independence Celebrations according to Kgathi. The next game at the venue is against Malawi on Tuesday night, and tickets for both encounters go on sale this Friday at P50 for the Grand Stand, P30 for Panda Stand and P20 for stands behind the goalposts. Given Batswana’s dwindled interest in their national soccer team lately, it is difficult to say for sure that the stadium will be filled to capacity, although it would be desirable if this were to happen, so as to gauge the full functionality of the facility.