Construction of Cape Town’s Green Point Stadium got off to a symbolic start on Tuesday when city mayor Helen Zille and Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool turned the first sods.
The ceremony, which included a blessing by religious representatives, took place on the Metropolitan golf course where the 68 000-seat stadium is to be built.
”This sod-turning ceremony is an important milestone for the delivery of the World Cup in our country,” Fifa local organising committee chairperson Danny Jordaan said in a statement issued after the event. ”[It] signals a huge vote of confidence in the work that has been done in Cape Town.”
The ceremony, also attended by Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi, follows the award of the construction tender on March 13 to a joint venture between construction companies Murray and Roberts and WBHO.
It began with representatives of a range of religions giving blessings and messages of support for the stadium construction.
In his address, Rasool said the provincial government hopes that the R2,9-billion stadium will act as the ”cheese in the trap” to lure at least R7-billion in lasting investment in public transport.
It will also lead to at least R12-billion in investment in the Western Cape economy and an ”optimistic” R21-billion in gross domestic product through a rise in tourism before, during and after the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
The stadium is earmarked to host a semifinal in the tournament.
Zille said that ensuring a legacy of improved public transport is really the ”most difficult task” for the city in the run-up to 2010.
”When you look at the public transport infrastructure, it really does make the stadium look like the opening round,” she said.
The next stage in construction will be setting up the site office. This should be operating within a week, and earth works should begin within two to three weeks, according to WBHO executive chairperson Mike Wiley.
Fifa’s deadline for completion of the stadium is the end of October 2009. — Sapa