Sang N.

This is what a modern stadium should look like

Aerial photo of Zomba Stadium. Source: Malawi’s State house

Yesterday, I saw the above image of the opening of a stadium in Zomba, by Malawi’s president Lazarus Chakwera. On one hand it’s a good thing for Zomba to have a half-decent stadium. But on the other it reminded me of my previous article here, about how some of the projects we are undertaking in Malawi are opportunities to move the country decades forward, but how we fail to take advantage of those opportunities.

For example, why didn’t they move the houses that can be seen nearby to a different area? They could have bought that land, and asked the owners of the land to re-locate. Either that, or find ample land elsewhere.

Anyway, to cut the story short, below is what I think a 21st century stadium should look like. And it doesn’t matter where you build it.

It’s a fact that in Malawi we have been building structures which are mediocre for this age and time. It’s like we’re saying places like Zomba don’t deserve to have modern state-of-the-art facilities?

How can Malawi even begin to attract major international sporting competitions or events when we don’t have the facilities? And when we continue to refuse to rise up to … International Standards?

International Standards are a Real Thing. Osamanamizana. And if we are to develop Malawi, we have to address some of these things properly.

Pamenepo would have been an opportunity to create an ecosystem. They could have built modern flats, had a roof with solar panels, they could have grown and designed a lush botanical garden. Something that gains inspiration from this:-

They could have made the place so attractive so that it becomes a magnet for tourists. A place where people can go to to have picnics, with friends and family, where couples can hire facilities to have their wedding receptions, and take pictures. Maybe even build a small shopping mall as part of the stadium complex, where some traders can rent units, and sell their wares.

Everything would have benefited the people of Zomba, with the profits going to the city council as revenue… they could have completely transformed the area and built something that looks like this:

That’s how we’ll develop Malawi.

If we did this kind of thing 1000 times across the country, the country will change...

That’s how countries like South Africa developed. That’s how every modern economy from the UAE to Australia develops. They build with intention, they build with a vision for the future. Look at the Sydney Opera House for example. It took a whooping 16 years to build. But it is still a masterpiece today…as it was in 1973, when it was opened.

Koma ayi ndithu, anzathu they’re still wallowing in the same old mediocrity story. No ambition, no incentive to dream… zero creativity.

Sometimes I don’t believe that I need to address such elementary things…because many of these things should be obvious to Malawi’s leaders.

But apparently they’re not.

Ok, you might say we’re failing to build modern 21st century infrastructure because the country doesn’t have money.

But that is the case because our leaders are signing bad deals that give away the country’s resources to foreign companies, in return for peanuts. And the little money that is earned from those bad deals is misused. Akumabwila ngati sugar…ndalama za dziko.

That has been the case as far as I can remember. Nde how can the country move forward like that?

It’s regressive, it must stop.

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