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SA's 2010 cities 'millions short'
23/01/2007 14:37 - (SA)
Cape Town - South African cities due to host the 2010 football World Cup complained on Tuesday of funding shortfalls of millions of rand to build stadiums for the continent's biggest sporting event.
Estimates had swelled due to inflation, exchange rate fluctuations as well as rising input costs linked to shortages of skilled manpower and building materials, officials told a parliamentary sport committee.
"There is a big funding gap," Cape Town's 2010 administrator Mike Marsden told parliamentarians.
"While host cities will be engaging in all ways possible to reduce the gap, there will still be a residual gap that we have to engage (national) treasury about."
Cape Town alone faced a shortfall of about R1.258bn rand in secured funding.
The price for a new stadium to be built in Cape Town had escalated from R2.5bn to over R3.7bn, largely due to what Marsden described as extravagant construction tendering.
Construction of the city's Green Point Stadium has to start by March.
Ten stadiums in nine cities are set to host the 2010 football extravaganza, with Cape Town hoping to get one of the two semi-final matches.
Another semi-final contender, the city of eThekwini told the committee it faced a R600m rand shortfall.
Input costs grew due to a shortage of skilled construction staff and specialised equipment like large building cranes, said the city's 2010 programme head Julie-May Ellingson.
"There is strong competition for resources in the construction industry," she added.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality in the Eastern Cape province said it was about R262m short.
The treasury has contributed R15bn to the World Cup, of which R12bn was intended for stadium construction and upgrading.
- AFP
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