The ManicaPost
Lovemore Kadzura
Rusape Correspondent
ZIMBABWE National Army side, Black Rhinos have found a new home at Rusape’s Vengere Stadium.
Harare now only has the National Sports Stadium as the venue fit to host Premier Soccer League matches as others such as Rufaro, Gwanzura Larfarge and Chibuku are in a shambolic state.
Chauya Chipembere have signed a two-year lease agreement with the local authority.
Acting Rusape Town Council secretary, Faniseni Shuwa said they will be done with minor works on the stadium which they expect to be complete by Monday and invite the ZIFA’s First Board of Instance to inspect the stadium.
“The stadium was approved just before matches were suspended due to the outbreak of Covid-19 and we had two teams, Manica Diamonds and Tenax who had expressed interest to use it.
However, they have opted to use Sakubva Stadium.
“We are busy attending to maintenance works in the changing rooms to replace damaged electrical and plumbing fittings. On the pitch, we are cutting the grass and putting new markings. We anticipate that by Monday we would have finished all the work and the stadium will be ready for inspection.
“Black Rhinos is the only club that has expressed interest to use the stadium and we are doing our best to finish the maintenance work on time,” said Shuwa.
Speaking on the sidelines of a tour of the stadium, Black Rhinos’ secretary-general, Edward Mutukwa said they opted to use Vengere Stadium due to the high turn-out of fans during matches.
He said they aim to make the stadium their permanent home.
“We will be using Vengere Stadium for the next two years. We have signed a two-year lease agreement with the council and we hope they will attend to small issues such as sprucing up of the changing rooms. The entire stadium is in fine form and the repairs just require two days.
“We have chosen Vengere Stadium because we want a community that we identify as part of us. You will find in Harare there is an issue of monopoly of supporters between Dynamos and Caps United. There is also one stadium being used and we cannot share the same fans every weekend.
“We expect to host Caps United here on February 12,” said Mutukwa.
Vengere Stadium has hosted a number of Premier Soccer League teams dating back to the late 1980s when Corn Textiles adopted the stadium as its home ground. Defunct, Dongo Sawmills used the venue in 2015 during their one-year stint in the top-flight league.
Mutare City Rovers, Buffaloes and Manica Diamonds also used the 5 000-seater as their home venue.
All the teams that used Vengere Stadium recorded decent crowds, and Black Rhinos being a tried and tested brand in local football, coupled with a decent squad are likely to pull huge crowds at the venue.
