Mpumalanga Stadium On Track To World Cup 2010

Mpumalanga Premier Thabang Makwetla has assured that the province is on track to host some of the 2010 Soccer World Cup games.
On Monday, 2010 project manager, Neil Fourie, also announced that 75% of the stadium was already completed.
"The concrete structure is complete. It is the scheduled demobilisation of the building teams that raised concern about future work amongst the workers," said Fourie.
Spokesperson for the 2010 Integrated Office, Ronny Moyo, said sub-contractors would now complete the project.

"The part that is largely left will be dealt with by sub-constructors. It should be noted that about 1 300 workers were deployed on site and only 450 were shown the door," he explained.
He said the main contractor indicated that with the existing workforce, only a natural disaster would halt the project's progress.

Fourie said the Mbombela local municipality, the Mbombela Stadium Joint Venture (MSJV) and project manager Platinum Sports Consulting all agreed that the stadium would be complete before September 30 - the date set by the 2010 local organising committee.

Fourie said that since construction of the stadium began in February 2007, almost 50 days have been lost to illegal strikes in November 2007 and June 2008.

NUM signed agreement
Through the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the workers signed an agreement that any future illegal strike would result in dismissal.
Therefore, when workers went on strike again last month and demanded up to R70 000 in bonuses each, they were fired.
During his state of the province address on Friday, Makwetla said significant progress had been made in preparing for the World Cup after the provincial government helped the Mbombela municipality address management challenges that threatened to derail preparations.

He said the public transport operational plan was in place.
Construction has begun on the Matsafeni access road, the R40 high occupancy vehicle lane, and the P166 and N4 interchanges.
The budget for the stadium is R971,5m, but had a R48m shortfall, which the provincial government funded.
Moyo blamed the shortfall on certain adjustments and FIFA requirements that were registered progressively with the project.

- African Eye