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The collapse of the proposed deal between the City of Harare and Sakunda Holdings for the renovation of Rufaro Stadium this week made a sad reading.

It felt like an opportunity lost if we were to look back at the stadium, which is currently in a state of decay and continuous disintegration due to corruption and years of mismanagement.

To be honest football, for whose major purpose this structure was built in the early 1970s, was the biggest loser once again following the latest fallout.

What is curious is that this painful development is that, it is not the first time that the struggling council has spurned offers from the corporate world to join hands in sprucing up the dilapidated infrastructure.

History has shown that the council has failed to maintain, let alone restore the ground to its former state despite numerous promises in the last decade.

Maybe the people in the leadership positions in the Council do not quite understand the significance of this stadium.

Rufaro Stadium cherishes a rich history for Zimbabwe, not only in football. This is the venue where the nation hosted the 1980 Independence celebrations on April 18 ,1980.

The significance of this day cannot be overemphasized in the hearts and minds of all patriotic Zimbabweans.

Iconic reggae musician Bob Marley serenaded a strong 35 000-plus crowd with his well-choreographed performance in this stadium as part of the celebrations.

Then, there was the first football final at Rufaro pitting Zimbabwe and their northern neighbours, Zambia, as Zimbabwe were readmitted to the FIFA family spending after over a decade in the wilderness due to international sanctions that had been placed on the colonial regime.

For many years, Rufaro has been known as the ceremonial home of local football.

Sadly, the ground had to close its doors after it failed to meet the minimum standards required for topflight football. The current state of the ground is totally unacceptable.

It is an eyesore to the passersby and a danger to the spectator.

Hence, authorities decided to shut the doors until the renovations are done.

The continued ruin of this iconic venue would seem like a part of our history is being obliterated.

Rufaro has not been able to host local football matches since 2019 and it looks like it may not be able to host any games again, as long as the calibre of the people running the city remains.

How Rufaro came to be in the current state of rot boggles the mind. Corruption has brought this ground to its knees.

Rufaro was supposed to maintain itself using the fixed levies collected from football clubs and revenue from ground hire for other recreational purposes.

The money never found itself back due to the deep-rooted corruption in the opposition-led council. But then Sakunda Holdings comes in and they commit to give Rufaro a massive face-lift, to match world class standards. What do they get in return? Ridicule!

How can Mayor Jacob Mafume turn around and claim that Sakunda wanted to take over the stadium just “because they have donated plastic seats?” Plastic seats? Is that what they were signing for when they proposed the Memorandum of Understanding back in March this year? What has changed? Mafume should not take people for fools.

The sad part was that the Mayor even found it funny, trivialising the good intentions by Sakunda Holdings. His address to this impasse lacked the mayoral decorum. How then does he expect other big organisations with similar plans to come forward? Mafume should be told to grow up and present himself as befitting a Mayor of a big city like Harare.

The background of the story is that the two organisations signed an MOU early this year, enabling Sakunda to carry out some feasibility studies and come up with comprehensive plans and designs, which are now in the public domain.

The project management team even toured South Africa for benchmarking in the company of officials from the City of Harare. One then finds it difficult to understand that Sakunda Holdings, as big as they are, would channel resources for people to tour South Africa just to see plastic seats.

From the word go, the energy giants, who also bankroll traditional local football powerhouses Dynamos and Highlanders, showed they were serious with the project but the lack of seriousness and political will on the part of the Council was a huge hindrance.

Then, Mafume claims they will renovate the stadium using their own resources.

That’s a lame explanation, a poor joke. Which resources does he talk about when they have driven the council bankrupt?

Harare is even failing to provide rate-payers with basic services like clean water and refuse collection.

Mafume told journalists that they were hoping to get funds to renovate Rufaro from beer taxes and from City Parking.

What a shame?

How does one bank on resources which are not there?

City Parking is already struggling with its own fair share of challenges.

Why didn’t they get those funds to maintain the stadium in the past? The truth is they just don’t have a plan with public amenities like Rufaro and the Council’s leadership must be humble enough to admit. This is cheap politicking from the Mayor and football continues to be the biggest loser.