Bid commitee wants Zille talks
2006-03-29 13:18
Cape Town - The Fifa local organising committee (LOC) for the 2010 World Cup has asked for a meeting with Cape Town mayor Helen Zille to defuse the controversy over Green Point stadium, LOC chairman Irvin Khoza said on Wednesday.
"We are confident that it will be resolved," he said.
He said Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool had also been invited to the meeting, which it was hoped would take place in Cape Town on Friday morning, ahead of an LOC board meeting.
The move follows Zille's decision this week to put planning for the R1.5bn stadium project on hold pending a report on the full financial implications for the city.
The stadium, to be developed on the site of an existing stadium, is planned as venue for one of the World Cup semi-finals.
Rasool has described Zille's decision as "irresponsible in the extreme", while the African National Congress claims she is using the issue to score "cheap political points and to settle election battles".
Khoza said Zille, like other new mayors, needed to be briefed "on what we [the LOC] know.
Too early to speculate
"If there are grey areas, we must provide information on those grey areas. She must be briefed properly... I think it's reasonable."
Asked whether the development of the stadium was already determined contractually, in black and white, he said the LOC did not know.
"It is too early to speculate. It's a process of its own: we don't know at what point they [the city] are."
He did say however that the city had made "commitments" in terms of the guarantees it gave the LOC.
Asked what would happen if Cape Town decided against building the stadium, he said: "We'll respond at that particular time. We can't respond now."
He said the row had not been damaging to the cup preparations "at this point in time.
"For us, we are giving Cape Town an opportunity. We've got lots of venues, We don't want to punish anyone. We've got to be proactive and accommodating," he said.
Zille has already said she is willing to meet the LOC and Rasool over the matter.
She said on Tuesday that on the basis of statistics presented to her mayoral committee, it was clear the stadium would cost at least R1.5bn to build.
At most, the city could expect to receive R500m from national government and would have to find the remaining R1bn required.
On the basis of these preliminary statistics, it would be "grossly irresponsible" to give the nod to the project, she said.
The Western Cape ANC said in a statement on Wednesday that Zille should understand that there were long-standing agreements between the LOC and different spheres of government "and she should not be a hindrance to a process that is in an advanced stage.
"It seems rather interesting that she prefers to soothe the fears and uncertainty of a few well-off residents who live in the immediate vicinity of the stadium instead of the thousands of soccer-loving people who did not vote for her."
- SAPA