13 Feb 2023

The BONA 2027 AFCON bid committee chairperson, Ashford Mamelodi, says the company tasked with sports facilities audit is in its last leg of the undertaking.

Speaking during a press conference on Friday, Mamelodi said Ruben Reddy Architects (RRA) from South Africa had already toured stadia in the southern part of the country and prospective training fields in Lobatse and Gaborone.

In northern, Mamelodi said the team visited Obed Itani Stadium and Maun as well as training fields.

“One of the things that they did as well was that they looked at the airports, because the airports are an essential part, as are our medical facilities,” he said.

“ So I think in Botswana as far as the audit is concerned, we have done pretty well, the plan is that once they are done here, they would then move to Namibia, to conduct the same exercise,” he said.

Furthermore, he said the bid committee from Botswana and Namibia met over the weekend to define the programme for Namibia, which he said was expected to start as soon as possible.

For his part, the RRA head of delegation, Ruben Reddy, said there was an assumption that there were gaps between what CAF required and what existed in Botswana and Namibia bid.

Their role, he said, was to determine if the gaps existed, assist the bid committee with estimates of the costs as well as ways through which the gaps could be plugged.

Meanwhile, the RRA team met with the Ministry of Health, Botswana Power Corporation (BPC), Civil Aviation Authorities Botswana (CAAB), Department of Broadcasting Services, Botswana Tourism Organisation and the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services.

The engagements are said to be part of audit meant to determine the gap between what the Confederation of African Football (CAF) requires of AFCON host nations and what already exists in both Botswana and Namibia, in terms of amongst others hotels, hospitals, airports, roads, internet connectivity and football stadia infrastructure. ENDS