South African cities due to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup complained on Tuesday of funding shortfalls of millions of rand to build stadiums for the continent’s biggest sporting event.
Estimates have 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 faces a shortfall of about R1,258-billion in secured funding.
The price for a new stadium to be built in Cape Town had escalated from R2,5-billion to over R3,7-billion, 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 South African cities are set to host the 2010 soccer extravaganza, with Cape Town hoping to get one of the two semifinal matches.
Another semifinal contender, the city of eThekwini — the new name for the eastern port city of Durban — told the committee it faces a R600-million 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 R262-million short.
The treasury has contributed R15-billion to the World Cup, of which R12-billion is intended for stadium construction and upgrading. — Sapa-AFP