By Donwald Pressly
The cost of the stadiums to be built in the host cities for the 2010 Soccer World Cup is estimated at some 7.5 billion rand, inclusive of 14% VAT, says Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile.
Replying to a parliamentary question on Monday from Democratic Alliance MP Daryl Worth, Stofile said his department did not at this stage have any information regarding the contributions by either local municipalities or provinces to this cost.
The only tenders which were issued by the host cities were confined to the preliminary design cost estimates and business plan development for each stadium.
The work done up to date, therefore, was commissioned in late March this year "after the Fifa executive had confirmed the 10 official match venues".
Earlier I-Net Bridge reported Transport Minister Jeff Radebe as saying that South Africa would require an additional 14.9 billion rand to improve its public transport infrastructure for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
This was in addition to the 3.5 billion rand that the national treasury had already allocated to the transport department to upgrade road and railway infrastructure.
According to the transport department's document titled "Transport Action Plan for 2010," 9.2 billion rand of the funding would be disbursed to the 10 World Cup host cities while 3.2 billion rand and 2.5 billion rand would be allocated to commuter rail operator Metrorail and the South African National Roads Agency respectively.
Earlier this year it was announced that there would be 10 stadiums used in nine host cities. They were: Cape Town (Greenpoint Stadium), Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium), Durban (King's Park Stadium) and Nelspruit (Mbombela Stadium), with the remaining six being upgraded - Rustenburg (Royal Bafokeng Stadium), Bloemfontein (Free State Stadium), Pretoria (Loftus Versfeld Stadium) Polokwane (Peter Mokaba Stadium) and Johannesburg (Soccer City and Ellis Park).
I-Net Bridge
Publisher: I-Net Bridge
Source: I-Net Bridge
