‘Upgrades will go ahead even if bid fails’
Mqondisi Dube | Saturday August 5, 2023 06:00
The bid committee chairperson, Ashford Mamelodi gave a progress update during a media briefing in Gaborone this week. “Government will re-prioritise. Already you know how much noise there was about how much we had to pay for the bid book. We still think it was worth every single thebe that we paid for it. I don’t think we are going to see all those six facilities done,” Mamelodi said.
Botswana spent P61 million on the bid book compiled by South African consultant, Ruben Reddy Architects. Botswana intends to build three new stadiums in Gabane, Maun, and Kasane as part of the 2027 bid while upgrading existing facilities in Gaborone, Lobatse, and Francistown.
The figure for the stadia upgrades as per the bid document is around P10 billion. Related infrastructure upgrades are also in the pipeline, including roads, and healthcare facilities among others. The Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture director of sport, Moreetsi Bogosi said the upgrades are not dependent on Botswana winning the bid. However, the upgrades will not be full-scale, he cautioned.
“As the chair (Mamelodi) said, the government will have to sit down and re-prioritise. And the position is, this is not the last time we are going to intend to host and, therefore, it is very important that even if we do not go full scale as the chair is saying, we start now and gradually build towards preparing ourselves for whenever we will see an opportunity to bid,” Bogosi said.
“So we will go on but not as high scale as we intended to do now. Even if we win the rights to host in 2027, we will go again before 2036. Yes, we will want to go on with the facilities upgrade. It is part of our development; it is part of our vision. It is not about football but part of our development,” he added. CAF will announce the winning bid next month. The continental body’s inspectors were due in the country this week to tour facilities.