I hear a lot of ululation that the National Sports Stadium is now fit to host CAF and FIFA sanctioned matches, and let me be clear: that is commendable. I applaud it. Zimbabwe needs proper stadiums, proper facilities and proper sporting infrastructure. This is my country, your country and our country, and we all want good things to happen. Celebrating progress is not wrong.
But celebrating one fixed stadium should not blind us to the wider decay. The picture behind this cartoon is not fiction. It is based on a real scene at Gwanzura Stadium, where people were sitting under a broken, rusting, collapsing structure that looks more like an abandoned ruin than a sports facility. This is also Zimbabwe. So yes, let us applaud the National Sports Stadium, but let us also ask why Gwanzura has been allowed to rot like this. Can we have fixing, not just clapping? Can we demand standards everywhere, not only celebrate the one stadium prepared for international eyes?
