By MOSES CHIMFWEMBE –

SPORTS Minister Chishimba Kambwili has assured that Zambia will be ready for the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) inspecting team in July despite construction works stalling at Mongu and Livingstone stadia.
Zambia is in the race to host the 32nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals together with Ivory Coast, DR Congo, Gabon, Guinea and Algeria.
A CAF inspectorate team is set to begin examining the soccer infrastructure with Ivory Coast this month before dating Zambia in July.
The Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola and the Heroes National Stadium in Lusaka are the only visible structures available ahead of Zambia’s AFCON bid while two other stadia in Mongu and Livingstone are yet to be built.
But Kambwili said yesterday said that Zambia was geared for the CAF inspectors despite the slow progress on the construction of the Mongu and Livingstone stadia that are expected to host some AFCON games should Zambia win the bid.
The minister said the Ministry of Finance will finance the construction of the Mongu Stadium which has stalled owing to inadequate funding.
“We are very prepared for the CAF inspectors, in fact on Monday I had a meeting with the Minister of Finance where we discussed the construction of the Mongu Stadium and he directed the Permanent Secretary in charge of budgeting to fund the construction of the stadium.
On the part of Government, we are very committed to ensuring that the stadia that we put in the bid are constructed and we are confident that we will win the bid,” he said.
Kambwili said the Government would further allocate resources for the Livingstone Stadium in the 2015 Budget.
Voting to select the host countries for the 2019 and 2021 AFCON tournaments will be done during a CAF Executive Committee meeting in September this year.
Meanwhile, Kambwili, who also featured on Ndola’s SUN FM Radio programme, said the Government was partly to blame for the low maintenance of the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium.
He said the Government was currently giving the stadium management K80,000 as monthly grant which was too little to carry out the maintenance works on the facility.
“I apologise to the people of Zambia that the Government is partly to blame for the poor management of the facility because management has been under funded and my ministry did a club memo requesting for increased funding to Levy stadium. The stadium management should also be blamed because they hold various functions and they cannot fail to take care of the facility.
“As a ministry, we are not going to condone vandalism at either Levy or Heroes National stadia,” he said.
And Kambwili hinted that K200,000 in the 2015 Budget was earmarked for the refurbishment of the Mpatamatu Stadium in Luanshya.
He said the move was in the spirit of promoting sports across the country.