By CHILA NAMAIKO –
GOVERNMENT has allocated K70, 000 towards rehabilitation works of the Independence Stadium in Choma.
Southern Province Sports Development Officer Kennedy Mubanga said the money had been allocated to the Zambia National Service (ZNS) to carry out works. especially on the playing tuff which was in a bad shape.
The stadium is used as home ground for Green Eagles, who won back promotion to the MTN-FAZ Super Division and hosts league champions Nkana on March 15 when the season kicks off.
Mubanga said  the  money was from Government through the department’s 2014 budget allocation aimed at carrying out works at the stadium.
He said in an interview yesterday that ZNS was asked to identify an area where the department could urgently assist with resources hence pumping in the resources.
“We requested ZNS to identify an area of need where our department can assist with and they said the pitch at their stadium was not evenly balanced. And it was from the K70, 000 that we released K40, 000 and works are currently in progress,” he said.
He said ZNS was using its engineers to work on the pitch and the department was providing finances to improve the standard of the stadium in the provincial capital of Southern Province.
Mubanga said ZNS had expertise to carry out such projects and Government would always support such efforts to ensure football infrastructure were modernised.
He said, once the works at the stadium were completed, the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) would inspect the pitch to determine whether it would meet the required standards.