The Cape Town Environmental Protection Association (Cepa) is to drop its court case seeking to stop the demolition of the Green Point Stadium, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Tuesday.
The Cape Town unicity’s legal team said Cepa’s lawyers had conceded that the demolition could not be stopped.
The two parties met in chambers at the Cape High Court, where Cepa was seeking an order to stop the demolition.
The process of breaking down the stadium is already far advanced. The demolition continued over the weekend after Cepa on Friday filed papers asking the Cape High Court for an urgent interdict against the demolition.
Lawyers for the association, the city, the provincial government and Fifa’s local organising committee met a judge in chambers on Friday afternoon. When they emerged, Cepa attorney Geoff Carter said it had been agreed to discuss up a timetable for filing responding papers, with a view to possibly having the interdict heard on Monday.
A new stadium is to be constructed on the site to host the semifinals of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The 68 000-seater stadium, described by Cepa in court papers as a ”monstrous carbuncle” on Cape Town’s skyline, will cost R2,9-billion.
The plans for the precinct around the proposed 2010 stadium call for the partial demolition of the old stadium. Planners have decided to retain the old stadium’s main grandstand for the time being.
Next to it, an area of about 5 000 square metres has already been dug out to a depth of 2m for the foundations of the new structure. — Sapa