By Monwabisi Jimlongo
Chippa United and the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM) have signed a 20-year lease for the use of both the Buffalo City and Jan Smuts Stadiums in East London.
The deal, which will see the Chippa Training Academy being housed at the two facilities, was announced at a function in East London on Thursday.
“A partnership which started way back in 2016 includes bringing top-flight football, which was not here before. In this term of office we decided to bring Chippa United here,” BCMM Executive Mayor Xola Pakati said.
“Subsequent to that we had a discussion with council to lease this facility to Chippa United. The purpose of leasing it is two-fold, that they remain in the city and continue to play top-flight football and also developing young talent of the city. Over and above, there are economic spin-offs that are derived from Chippa United being here. As you would know when Chippa United play the stadium is full to capacity. That increases the revenue of the city and also contributes to sports tourism.
“It’s a multi-pronged approach, we benefit out of bringing Chippa United here and the people of the city are enjoying top-flight football that was not here before. We are grateful as a city from (Siviwe) Mpengesi for coming to invest his money in this city. We have been working well with him since he came here. That is a great investment he is making. These are municipal facilities, but we cannot run these facilities on our own. We don’t have the ability to run such facilities.”
BCMM’s first citizen made it clear that his municipality is not financing East London-based ABC Motsepe League side BCM Stars, which is managed by former Chilli Boys chief executive officer Morgan Mammila.
“BCM Stars is a development club that is assisted by Chippa United as part of ploughing to the community. It’s not financed by us,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chilli Boys chairman Siviwe ‘Chippa’ Mpengesi said that the Chippa Training Academy is going to cater for all sporting codes.
“My immediate plan is to bring order, beef up security and renovate the facilities back to where they were. It is not even about capacity other than the financial capacity,” Mpengesi said.
The Chilli Boys boss also revealed that he has already acquired the services of Shane Juta, who is going to become stadium manager.
“We hired an expert in terms of stadium management. Our goal is to have a sports academy here. We are going to seek permission from the municipality to build a school and develop kids in all sporting codes,” he said.
“Chippa United only plays seven games here. Chippa United remains a Nelson Mandela Bay team. The idea is to develop football players who can play for Chippa United. Owners of BCM Stars have an idea to take the team to become a PSL club one day.”
The Chilli Boys have been some of their matches in East London since 2016. They have used both the Buffalo City.
