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Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter

THE home for Mutare Premiership football teams games, Sakubva, has been reopened.

The stadium will host its first top-flight game since the first week of July this weekend.

Sakubva was suspended from hosting top-flight matches after a goalpost collapsed during a league encounter between Manica Diamonds and Bulawayo City on July 3.

The venue is home to Manica Diamonds, Tenax, some Eastern Region Division One clubs, as well as the women’s football league.

However, the facility has been re-opened following an inspection by the ZIFA First Body Instance that condemned the facility two months ago.

The turf had also deteriorated due to over use. The ground was initially home to four Premiership teams, namely Manica Diamonds, Tenax, Black Rhinos and Cranborne Bullets. But the army sides — Black Rhinos and Cranborne Bullets — have since relocated to Vhengere in Rusape.

Manica Diamonds and Tenax were also forced to briefly use the Rusape facility following the suspension of Sakubva.

Mutare City Council ran around and managed to do some maintenance work to the pitch. They also replaced the substandard goalposts.

Although the spruce up did not improve much, the new conditions can now at least host a football match.

A close source at Mutare City Council said it was resolved to re-open the facility that is not far off the mark when it is compared with other venues that are hosting the league matches. So there was no justification not to re-open the Sakubva facility after some renovations.

“They made a few improvements. They replaced the goalposts and erected new standard ones. The pitch has also improved from what it was. Generally, the stadia being used by most league teams is not up to standard and there is still room to work on these grounds,” said the source.

Recently, our sister paper Manica Post published that the Mutare business community that used to benefit from travelling league teams was bemoaning loss of business.

The ban was affecting business for hotels and other service providers that used to host visiting teams in Mutare.

The troubled Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services team, Tenax, returns to Sakubva on Saturday in a relegation battle encounter against Harare City.

Tenax are second from bottom with 22 points from 27 matches. They are above basement team Whawha who have 20 points. Bulawayo City and Harare City are third and fourth from bottom with 24 points.

Tenax manager Lloyd Chinawa said the game is a must-win for them if they want to survive the relegation battle.

“It’s a must win game on Saturday, otherwise if we don’t collect maximum points then we might as well kiss goodbye to the PSL.

“It’s good that we are back at Sakubva and we also want to thank Rusape residents for supporting us during the time we were using Vhengere.

“It feels good to be back home at Sakubva and we are asking our fans to come out in big numbers to support their team and we promise them maximum points,” said Chinawa.

It has been a downward spiral for the Mutare side that was promoted into the top-flight league in 2019 but had to delay their debut due to Covid-19 lockdowns.

This season is their full season in the league, having featured in the Chibuku Super Cup tournament last season.

But the team, which had a good start in the first half of the season, are going through a bad spell that has seen them going for 630 minutes of action without a victory.

Their last victory was at Sakubva on July 10 when they stunned Chicken Inn 1-0.

Before the Chibuku Super Cup break, they managed a goalless draw against CAPS United at the National Sports Stadium.

And the team that is struggling in front of goal would be hoping to build on from that performance on Saturday against Taurai Mangwiro’s charges.

Harare City are also singing the blues in the league where they have gone for six matches without a win. Their last victory was a 1-0 win against Triangle United on July 16.

Fixtures

Saturday: ZPC Kariba v Black Rhinos (Nyamhunga), Cranborne Bullets v Highlanders (Vengere), FC Platinum v Bulawayo City (Mandava), Yadah v CAPS United (National Sports Stadium), Chicken Inn v Whawha (Luveve), Tenax v Harare City (Sakubva).

Sunday: Dynamos v Ngezi (National Sports Stadium), Bulawayo Chiefs v Manica Diamonds (Luveve), Triangle United v Herentals (Gibbo).