City of Harare lease Rufaro Stadium to Kuda Tagwirei’s Sakunda Holdings

The Harare City Council (HCC) has for a long term officially leased out Rufaro Stadium to controversial businessman Kuda Tagwirei’s company Sakunda Holdings.

The agreement comes a few days after the city fathers decided against leasing the facility to Dynamos FC who had applied to the council seeking permission to renovate and rent the stadium for a long term.

However, council refused to lease the facility to one of the country’s giant clubs citing they are not in a position to lease the stadium to any individual club.

But despite that the local authority said they are ready to agree a deal of the same magnitude with some members from the corporate world.

And as a result of their invite, Sakunda who had applied to the City of Harare in a bid to refurbish the stadium has been granted the nod to takeover the Mbare facility for an undisclosed period.

In a statement, the City of Harare Acting Town Clerk, Phakamile Moyo confirmed that the two parties have agreed to a deal set to see Sakunda restore life to the dilapidated sporting facility.

“I’m glad to advise that on the 28th of February 2022, council granted the Acting Town Clerk authority to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of the City of Harare with Sakunda Holdings on the proposal for a lease for the refurbishment of Rufaro Stadium to FIFA soccer stadia, subject to the expectations of the city,” read Moyo’s statement.

Therefore, as part of the deal, the country’s giant oil company which is also a major sponsor of Dynamos and Highlanders FC until 2024 will face lift the stadium into a state of the art facility in order to meet the required FIFA and CAF standards.

In their proposal, Sakunda also promised to refurbish the stadium’s surrounding grounds, parking bays, roads, drainage and sewer reticulation systems as well as water and power supplies.

“As Sakunda Holdings, we present our interest to partner the City of Harare to rehabilitate and develop Rufaro Stadium infrastructure into a world class sporting facility,” reads part of the company’s proposal.

In addition, Sakunda said they are also interested in sprucing up the Belgravia Sports Club to be used by Dynamos as their training arena.

“Once Rufaro Stadium has been fully rehabilitated local Premiership matches, regional CAF matches and international FIFA matches will be hosted there.

“Dynamos Football Club would also use the stadium (Rufaro) as its home ground. Belgravia Sports Club would be rehabilitated and its grounds used for regular training by Dynamos FC.”

But before all renovations take place, initially a selected team that has already been authorised by the council will visit foreign countries to assess how other nations refurbished their stadias. Nehanda Radio