The new stadiums South Africa is building for the 2010 Soccer World Cup will cost R2-billion more than planned, Deputy Minister of Finance Jabu Moleketi said on Wednesday.
The extra cost will have to be borne by the host cities and the national fiscus, he told journalists at a 2010 World Cup update briefing in Pretoria.
”A number of stadiums are reflecting there are going to be some [cost] overruns,” Moleketi said. The overruns are the result of increases in the cost of imported equipment, increased steel prices, the high international oil price, the exchange rate and ”complexities” in the design of some of the stadiums.
”We are talking about R2-billion,” he said.
The government is discussing the overruns with the host cities. ”We are talking … [about] their capacity to generate loans.”
The government is also talking to the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) about a package that will allow the host cities to meet this new ”financial obligation”, he said.
”National fiscus will have to make a contribution; host cities will have to make a contribution; and we have to involve institutions such as the DBSA.”
The host cities will have to assume an ”equitable” portion of the increased costs, Moleketi said, but did not spell out how much individual cities will have to contribute. He also did not say which stadiums are involved in the cost overruns.
In some cases, there have been ”designs and complexities” at certain stadiums that have contributed to this.
According to documents distributed at the briefing, six of the stadiums under construction — in Johannesburg, Durban, Polokwane, Nelspruit, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town — are on track for completion ahead of the final inspection by world soccer governing body Fifa in December next year.
The 2010 World Cup is set to kick-off in June of that year. — Sapa