With thieves descending on the yet-to-be opened 40,000-seater Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe, government has swiftly stepped up security, including pushing for the Lilongwe facility’s own police unit.
Ministry of Sports and Culture’s publicist, Christopher Mbukwa, confirmed to have applied to Malawi Police Service that the $70 million (K26.6 billion) Chinese government-funded stadium should have its own police unit.
The call for a police unit comes after national deputy police publicist, Thomeck Nyaude, confirmed that Lilongwe Police shot and arrested 30-year-old Thomson Chigoneka who was a member of a gang that was stealing metal pipes after digging a hole into the stadium.
“To make the stadium more secure, we have applied for a police unit to be situated right at the stadium and [we] have since received a positive response from the Inspector General that a Police Unit will actually be opened at the stadium,” Mbukwa explained.
Mbukwa called on Lilongwe communities to take ownership of the world-class facility which has transformed Lilongwe landscape. Malawi government will repay the Chinese the concessional loan for over 20 years.
“The recent incident of attempted theft at the stadium, where one suspect was shot at, is unfortunate and we urge all such people to desist from stealing materials from the stadium,” Mbukwa explained.
National Police Headquarters’ spokesperson, Nicholas Gondwa, yesterday said he needed to consult the Inspector General, Lexten Kachama, before commenting on the stadium’s security proposal.
The construction of the stadium was finalised last year with handover now scheduled for April.
“Various activities will form part of the opening programme of the stadium but the climax will be a match between Malawi [national football team] and a foreign team which will be made known to the public soon,” Mbukwa said.
It has emerged that the delays in its opening are partly due to a lack of turnstiles, brick-wall and cables which government has to fix outside the Chinese funding arrangement. Reports suggest government will spend some K200 million.
Meanwhile, there has been no guarantee that the new stadium will be home to any TNM Super League sides. Mbukwa said they had not signed an agreement with any team.
“The daily running cost of the stadium is yet to be estimated considering that activities have not started at the stadium, but there will be steady source of income as we intend to make it a government cost centre and also it will run as a business entity since it has potential to generate revenue from both sporting and non-sporting activities,” he added.
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