Harare-based cleric Walter Magaya said that he has invested more than US$25 million to aid the development of sport in the country.
Magaya, who founded Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries and owns Yadah Football Club in the Premier Soccer League, is constructing a 10,000-seater stadium in Kwekwe in partnership with his business associate Shepherd Chahwanda.
Deputy Sports Minister Emily Jesaya toured the Chahwanda Stadium with Magaya on Tuesday to get an appreciation of the project.
Speaking during the tour, Magaya who aspires to become the next Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) president, said (via NewsDay):
What I want to leave is a legacy. I want a situation whereby, many years later, like what is happening with the Gwanzura Brothers where people still speak about them after they built a stadium in the 60s.
What I’m trying to do, whether I will be the ZIFA president or not, I don’t care… what I care about is leaving a legacy which will make people speak about this even 100 years later when I’m gone that there was a man who thought of people more than himself.
The money that I have used here is enough to buy myself a helicopter or a small private jet. But I’m not thinking about myself, I’m thinking about the next generation of what they can benefit from what I’m doing here.
Magaya said that Chahwanda Stadium will be a “magnified and transformed version” of The Heart Stadium in Waterfalls, Harare.
He has set a target to complete the project by the end of January 2025, in time for the start of the next domestic premier league season.
The successful completion of the project could see the return of premier league football to Kwekwe, a city that was once home to famous clubs such as Lancashire Steel, ZISCO Steel, and Kwekwe Cables.
A local team, Kwekwe United, won promotion to the PSL and could be the first to use Chahwanda Stadium — The Heart Main Arena — as its home ground next season.
Kwekwe-based Hardrock FC, owned by Chahwanda, will be playing in the ZIFA Central Region Soccer League next season and will also use the stadium for its home matches.
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