Chitungwiza's major football ground, Chibuku Stadium, has opened its doors again in virtually the same appalling state it was when it had to be temporarily closed in March.

After four months undergoing a face-lift the sprawling suburb's only big soccer stadium is back in business and despite assurances by the director of housing in the Chitungwiza Municipality, Simbarashe Mudunge, that they were happy with the work carried out, the stadium's condition remains poor.

The pitch, which was the main focus of the face-lift, is still sub-standard and bumpy. There are still large areas of brown grass which does not even cover the whole playing area.

Thick grass has also grown on the area where people, holding rest-of-the-ground tickets, used to sit. Nothing was done to improve the state of the toilets and the dressing rooms.

No other structure has been added and the two small stands on the northern side are still the only indications that it is a modern stadium capable of hosting top-flight football. A small advertisement has been painted on the wall surrounding the stadium.

Mudunge said they only carried out work on the pitch because nobody approached them complaining about the pathetic state of the toilets and the dressing rooms.

"There is nobody who approached us. we can't be getting it from the Press. They (teams) should come to us. Although it is for people to judge the stadium we are happy that the work was properly done," he said.

The state of the toilets and dressing rooms was last month lambasted by Lovemore Nyabeza, the coach of Blue Swallows, the last National Premier Soccer League club to have used Chibuku Stadium as their home venue.

Nyabeza said the toilets and dressing rooms were not suitable for use. During matches water and urine can be seen flowing from the toilets and the dressing rooms.

But it might be asking too much from the municipality to solve the stadium's woes, especially the drainage of the toilets, in four months when the same authorities have failed to address the sewerage problems in the Unit H, E and D suburbs close to the stadium. Raw sewage runs every day in the three suburbs as ageing drainage pipes burst frequently.

Mudunge said they had re-laid the grass on the entire pitch although a visit by The Herald revealed that new grass was only planted on the two goal areas and a few other areas on the pitch. Chitungwiza Municipality's workers could be seen attending to it.

The grass on either goal area and on the few patches that used to be bare is green and contrasts sharply with the other numerous patches of brown grass which used to cover the bumpy pitch and which still remain.

The poor condition of the pitch is again likely to hold up the water on the field when the rains begin, resulting in it quickly becoming waterlogged and not conducive for games. The problems over waterlogging delayed attempts by the municipality to complete the re-laying of the grass much earlier.

Asked how much the exercise had cost Chitungwiza Municipality, Mudunge said he had not been informed yet by the town engineer, who was still working on the figures.

Chibuku Stadium was temporarily closed in March to facilitate renovations, forcing Blue Swallows to move to Rudhaka Stadium in Marondera which they now use as their home ground.

It could not be established from Swallows yesterday whether they will first inspect the Chitungwiza stadium before determining whether to resume using it for Premier League matches or continue using Rudhaka.

The Sports Commission are adamant that the new Zifa constitution, incorporating the recommendations of the Justice Garwe report on football, should be adopted by September 30.

Alwyn Pichanick, the Sports Commission chairman, said the deadline would not be affected by the Zifa Council-elected implementation committee's failure to produce a document on how to implement the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into Football by August 31.

In a statement issued last night, Pichanick said: "The Sports and Recreation Commission has resolved that the deadline of September 30 for the adoption of the constitution of Zifa shall remain.

"In order to enable Zifa Council to adopt the constitution by September 30 the date of August 31 was fixed for the implementation committee to submit its recommendations both for circulation to the council and the Commission.

"No recommendations from the Implementation Committee have been received by the Commission but an extraordinary meeting of the Zifa Council has been called for September 27. in terms of the agreement previously reached, a constitution acceptable to the Commission must be adopted by (Zifa) Council at its meeting of September 27," said Pichanick.

They had made it clear, he said, that the Sports Commission had adopted the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into Football and provided a draft constitution to the implementation committee based on the findings in the report.

The implementation committee, currently looking at the recommendations and their possible implementation, said last week they would not be able to meet the August 31 deadline given to them because they had not yet completed their work.

The Justice Garwe Commission of Inquiry, set up by the then Minister of Sport, Recreation and Culture, Witness Mangwende, last year to look into the problems in football, made a number of recommendations, chief of which was that the Premier League should be retained but should fall under Zifa.

Another was that the league should also be administered by a special committee elected by the top-flight clubs and that anyone seeking office in Zifa should have at least five years' experience administering a Premier League or Division One club.