A wetland has been bulldozed in Nelspruit as part of plans to construct a new stadium for the 2010 soccer World Cup.
The wetland was not bulldozed to make way for the Mbombela stadium itself but for a school that will have to be temporarily relocated because it is currently on the site where the stadium will be built. No environmental impact assessment was done before the bulldozers moved into the wetland.
The stadium, one of 10 venues in South Africa planned for 2010, will seat 45 000 spectators. Located on open land 6km west of Nelspruit, the stadium will be the centrepiece of a proposed sports and conference precinct, with a panoramic view over the city. Construction is due to start next year.
The department of public works in the province is handling the relocation of the school. But spokesperson Ina Georgala told the Mail & Guardian that public works only did what its client, the Mpumalanga department of education, had requested it to do.
The provincial education department said the land to which the school will be relocated was donated by the Mdhluli family, which also owns the land where the stadium will be built. ”The site was identified by the municipality in collaboration with the members of the Mdhluli Trust and was considered suitable for the building of the school’s temporary classes,” Hlanhla Ngwenya, the spokesperson for the education department said.
He said there has been no report to suggest that the area cannot be used, ”hence the project is in progress”.
Freddy Ngobe from the Mpumalanga department of agriculture and land administration, which handles provincial environmental issues, disagrees. He confirmed that no EIA had been completed when the wetland was bulldozed.
”Yes, a portion of a wetland was bulldozed before the record of decision [permission to proceed after an EIA has been done] was issued,” he said. He added that a record of decision was subsequently issued for the stadium site after an official in the department had queried the initial go-ahead.
According to an official inside the environmental department, in order to get a record of decision, a hasty EIA was conducted.
Ngobe said the municipal council in Nelspruit indicated to the department of public works that the site was suitable for the relocation of the school.
The department of environmental affairs is now preparing to fine the municipal council as the custodian of the land.
But Vusi Sibaya, the spokesperson for the committee in charge of the municipality’s World Cup projects, denies that the relocation of the school was being facilitated by the municipality, adding that the Mbhuli Trust had donated the land.
Ngobe said that plans to rehabilitate the wetland after the school has been moved to a permanent location have been included in the new environmental management plan which his department demanded after it became aware that the wetland had been bulldozed.
”A number of meetings have been held between the council, the ecological consultant, and the departments of education and public works to ensure that this does not recur,” he said. ”A precinct plan for the stadium has been commissioned by the council and this plan will address environmental issues. A record of decision for the stadium itself has been issued and the conditions in the RoD will be monitored to ensure compliance.”
The Mbombela stadium is not the only project that is struggling with environmental issues. This week, Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile threatened to retract Cape Town’s status as host city if worried citizens did not back down about special interest concerns that are holding up the construction of the Greenpoint Stadium. The Western Cape environmental authorities have received 19 appeals against the construction of the stadium.
The 2010 local organising committee did not respond to questions from the M&G.