A few steps from a ramshackle market, two gold-tassled red lanterns swung from a pagoda gateway which boldly promises that friendship between China and Mozambique will outlast ”heaven and earth”.
It is not a traditional entrance to a national stadium in Southern Africa.
But for poor Mozambique, the temporary Chinese gates are a $60-million Beijing-sponsored opportunity to tap into the Soccer World Cup in neighbouring South Africa.
The stadium, financed by a Chinese loan, is the biggest sports construction since Mozambique’s independence from Portugal in 1975 and 16 years of ruinous civil war.
Authorities now hope to attract fellow Portuguese-speaking 2010 teams, including five-time champions Brazil, to use the stadium to train for the soccer festival.
But with kick-off in South Africa in June next year, it faces a race against time.
”That’s why we are working 24 hours a day,” the state’s project director Celso Mabjaia said as labourers prepared at sunset to hand over to the night shift.
The project has employed 273 Chinese and 331 Mozambicans so far, with the figures expected to reach 500 and 1 000 by the end of the project. Maputo is expected to start paying back the loan in 2017.
The final result will be a multi-facility sports park anchored by the 42 000 capacity stadium. It is one of several Chinese-backed projects worth millions of dollars in Mozambique.
On the site on the Maputo outskirts, the Chinese have set up a small village with a vegetable garden, communal dormitories, dining and bathroom areas. And a ping-pong table.
”They work very hard — 24 hours — and they look for daily results,” said Jose de Sousa Pereira, the Mozambican sports ministry spokesperson.
”They are high performance workers, so we are learning from them, this culture of working.”
Communication and cultural differences have been a challenge overcome through practicalities and many hand gestures.
”I know how to greet in Chinese now,” said Domingos Porfirio (24) dubbed ”amigo” by his welding team leader. ”We speak about lots of things … women, sightseeing … They want to know about the country.”
”They received me very well and they treat me very well. I thought they were racist, now I found they are not racist. They are friendly,” he said.
But others said they were happy to have a job but that the work was hard, while one 21-year-old complained about a lack of response on salary discussions.
Waiting outside the gate, other workers hoped to get inside.
”I’ve been waiting for five days and nothing has happened,” said Armando Zualo (25).
Mozambique is one of the world’s poorest nations — ranking 172 out of 177 countries in the latest UN human development index — with foreign aid making up 51% of the country’s $3,2-billion budget last year.
Built on ties established during the Marxist-led fight for independence from Portugal in the 1960s, China is the country’s sixth largest foreign direct investor.
In 2007, China’s President Hu Jintao pledged further loan assistance of $170-million for the strategically placed nation whose 2 000km coastline offers access to land-locked Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
Officials believe the football stadium will allow Mozambique to benefit from the World Cup as Maputo is just 450km from the main host city Johannesburg.
Regional countries completely support South Africa’s hosting of the Cup, said Pereira.
”It’s very important to give to the world the opportunity to see that in Southern Africa that development is going on and that we have ability and capacity to receive this kind of project,” he said.