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GOVERNMENT says the delay by the Chinese contractor to handover the Heroes National Stadium was due to lack of a technical committee to manage to ultra-modern facility.
Sports Minister Chishimba Kambwili said Shanghai Construction Company Zambia are next month expected to hand over the 60,000 seater Heroes National Stadium following completion of the works.
Kambwili said his ministry is in the process of finalising the constituting of a technical committee team, that would be in charge of the stadium once handed over, but that his ministry already has an ad hoc committee that will be on hand to take over running of the stadium.
The minister said this in response to Chinese Ambassador Zhou Yuxiao who wanted to know when Government would be ready to receive the stadium that was completed three months ahead of schedule.
Zhou said the contractor wanted to work closely with the team that would be managing the stadium so that they can be made aware of the operations of the stadium once it was handed over.
“What we wanted was for the team to be ready once we handover this stadium so that they can learn from the contractor, unlike starting the process all over again since works have already been completed,” Zhou said.
Zhou said this when the Chinese government donated assorted sports items to the Zambia Table Tennis Association (ZTTA) on Tuesday.
The contractor had already finalised works at the stadium and what was remaining was the handover.
But Kambwili said the process of recruiting staff as it was advertised in the media takes time because the names had to be verified by the security wings before they can be employed to work at the stadium.
Kambwili said for now, the ministry’s chief sports development officer Gibson Munyaule would head the improvised committee until when the technical committee was set up.
Meanwhile, K500,000 has been raised for the Women Under-17 football ahead of the Costa Rica 2014 FIFA World Cup finals slated for March.
Kambwili said he would ensure that his promise was fulfilled of ensuring that the team that secured a historic qualification to the World Cup finals was adequately prepared.
He also said that the promise of rewarding K10,000 winning bonuses each to the member of the victorious team was still alive.
Times of Zambia
