Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality allegedly shifted its stadium construction deadline four times, costing Port Elizabeth the right to host the Confederations Cup next year, the Mail & Guardian has been told.
A source close to the 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC) technical team told the M&G this week that Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke took the decision on behalf of the 2010 LOC because the city kept on shifting its completion deadlines and had not allocated enough time for the erection of the stadium roof required to withstand the Friendly City’s notorious winds.
The LOC board recently announced that the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium was unlikely to meet the March 30 2009 deadline, citing the complex nature of the stadium’s construction, the roof in particular, as the reason.
LOC spokesperson Tim Modise could not confirm the reasons for the decision but insisted that the board — and not Fifa — made the decision.
Bicks Ndoni, deputy mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, suspected there were reasons other than those mentioned for excluding Port Elizabeth. He said the municipality had written to the LOC seeking answers. ‘There are many reasons. We will know in due course and we are hoping that the LOC’s decision will be changed.â€
He denied that the municipality had changed the construction deadline four times. ‘Our deadline was December 2008 and we then moved it to December 2009. We believe that there is more to this. We acknowledge that the roof was supposed to have arrived from Dubai in June, but it was delayed and will be here by August. We have plans in place to ensure that we meet the March 30 deadline of the Confederations Cup.â€
But the source was insistent. ‘The LOC technical team didn’t want to be harsh on the city but had to report to Fifa. People need to understand that this is a Fifa event in South Africa, therefore they are not willing to take any risks. The first deadline for the completion of the stadium was September 2007, then they came and said they had made mistakes and it [the stadium] would be completed by February 2008. They changed it again to March 2008, then to May 2008, until the final one [the proposed date of completion] being March 2009.
‘The municipality allowed little time for the roof and the construction site should have been a 24-hour working site because of the then-tight March 2009 deadline for the Confederations Cup. Surely the contractor went back to the municipality and suggested this, but because of extra costs the municipality refused.â€
According to the LOC source the municipality ignored advice to make the stadium construction a 24-hour operation.
Ndoni said it was unnecessary to work around the clock. ‘Working 24 hours was unnecessary but we will put in extra hours in the next couple of months to ensure that we remain on schedule, as we have always been. Our subcontractors will work throughout the December holidays if needed to,†he said.
In May 2006 the Nelson Mandela Bay officials made a presentation at a conference hosted by the Institute for Local Government Management of South Africa, where they indicated that the stadium construction had already begun with bulk earthworks and piling and the stadium to be completed in September 2007.
‘Alarm bells started ringing in April [2008] when the municipality won a Grahamstown High Court order compelling the contractor working on the stadium, Grinaker LTA, to ensure that the stadium is completed in time for the competition.
‘When the municipality took that route we knew that there serious problems and the LOC technical team had to closely monitor progress. This was a first in the construction industry and it took people by surprise,†the source said.