By Nyasha Chuma
A COMPANY linked to Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe has been shut out from renovating the National Sports Stadium after Sport minister Kirsty Coventry raised alarm at the “ridiculous prices” put forward during the tendering process.
Learbridge Investments was awarded a tender to renovate the National Sports Stadium at a cost of US$2,577,334.01 for the supply and installation of a new and upgraded security system among other amenities.
In a letter in possession of Zim Morning Post dated 5 August 2021, Sport ministry permanent secretary Thokozile Chitepo congratulated Learbridge for winning the tender.
The Ministry said Learbridge won a US$2,5 million tender to “deliver, install and commission an Automated Turnstile System, Electronic Ticketing System, Venue Operation Control, Biometric Access Control and CCTV at the giant stadium”.
Speaking to state media last week, on the sidelines of a handball national team kit presentation ceremony at the Swiss ambassador’s residence in Harare, Coventry revealed that the ministry was now proceeding by way of direct procurement as suppliers had attempted to fleece the Government, through inflated prices leading to the cancellation of the exercise.
“We are obviously quite disappointed but, at the end of the day, procedures need to be followed correctly,’’ she said.
‘’When the tender process started, we had done some investigations into how much the seats and some of the things, would cost. Unfortunately, when the bids came in, they were three to four times the amount which, for me, was a red flag, and shows different forms of corruption. The bids that were given to us were ridiculous prices, prices that were unaffordable for the Government to even try to justify,” she continued.
“The tender was cancelled and we were given permission to do a direct procurement, which is what we are doing.’’
The Confederation of African Football has granted the National Sports Stadium a one-match approval to host senior teams’ international matches.
Thereafter, the stadium will be automatically barred from hosting senior teams’ international matches and other CAF Men’s Inter Club Competitions until outstanding issues noted in previous inspection reports have been addressed.
This follows an inspection at the facility by CAF’s Tshegofatso Moiloa on 13 and 14 October.
CAF indicated that the Warriors’ home World Cup qualifier against Ethiopia in November will be the last game that we will play at home.
The National Sports Stadium was initially banned from hosting senior teams’ matches in 2020 but was provisionally cleared later in the same year. Since then, CAF has been using reports from inspections conducted by ZIFA to extend the temporary approval.
