City of Cape Town officials held a long meeting with counterparts from the 2010 local organising committee (LOC) on Wednesday in a bid for a solution to the financing of the proposed Green Point Stadium.
The city this week stalled on approving the R2,7-billion budget for the project after what mayor Helen Zille said were last-minute cost escalations of R180-million.
It was expected that her mayoral committee member for finance, Ian Nielson, would meet on Wednesday with Deputy Finance Minister Jabu Moleketi in an attempt to secure the funding from National Treasury.
Instead, according to mayoral spokesperson Robert Macdonald, the city’s 2010 team, headed by city director of service-delivery integration Mike Marsden, spent much of the day in talks with the LOC’s technical team.
They were still busy shortly before 6pm, he said.
Nielson’s meeting with Moleketi would happen only after the discussions with the LOC were finalised, Macdonald said.
Earlier, mayoral committee member for economic development Simon Grindrod expressed concern over the city’s ability to drive the stadium project.
”[Grindrod] is appealing to mayor Zille, Premier [Ebrahim] Rasool and National Treasury not to allow political grandstanding to derail Cape Town’s number one opportunity to create jobs, unity and direct investment,” his office said in a statement.
Grindrod is also the Independent Democrats’s caucus leader in the council.
He said in the statement that this was the fourth time the city had halted the stadium project.
”Our inability to drive such a high-profile initiative is sending a very negative signal to the international investor community in a city already seen as Slaapstad,” he said.
”It is totally unacceptable that fundamental questions surrounding financing are still being asked on the very day the city is supposed to award the stadium construction tender.”
Grindrod’s statements stand in marked contrast to Zille’s assessment of the city’s role. She told a media briefing on Tuesday that Cape Town had faced a stadium challenge ”much bigger than any other city has faced”.
”But we’ve been absolutely committed to it, and worked day and night to secure the outcome, and have made fantastic progress over the last six months,” she said. — Sapa