Mozambique: Prime Minister Visits African Games Village

27 May 2011

Maputo — Mozambican Prime Minister Aires Ali on Friday reaffirmed his optimism that the athletes village and all the sports facilities required will be ready in time for the All-Africa Games, due to be hosted by Mozambique in September.

Ali was speaking after a visit to the site where the games village is under construction in the outer Maputo neighbourhood of Zimpeto. The purpose of his visit was to assess progress and check whether or not the village will be ready on time.

In the village complex, Ali visited some of the 27 buildings which, by the end of construction, should contain 848 apartments to accommodate the 6,500 sportsmen and women and members of delegations who will attend the games.

“The work is going ahead at a good pace”, said Ali. “It’s true there has been a slight delay since my last visit, because then they were talking about completing the work by June. Now they inform me that some of the buildings will be finished in July, and the rest in August”.

“We are still in time”, the Prime Minister continued. “Things are now speeding up, and some of the difficulties posed in the past, such as customs clearance for the materials, have been overcome”.

In addition to the village, the games organizers assured Ali that the Olympic swimming pool is almost complete, lacking only finishing touches on the spectators’ benches, the bathrooms and the offices.

Nobody should despair, Ali said. The games were motivating Mozambicans, and a vote of confidence should be given to the contractors and their workers, in this final and decisive phase.

“Now we should bank on marketing the games and on our self esteem, so that we can be sure that the All-Africa Games will take place and will be a success”, he declared.

It was a sizeable delegation that accompanied Ali to the site of the games village – including the Ministers of Finance, Public Works, Science and Technology, the Interior and Culture, and the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sport.

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