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SA marks 1000 days until 2010 kick-off

Article Published: Saturday 15 September 2007

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Pretoria - When the nation awoke on Friday morning, it was to a historic day for both South Africa and the continent, as it is now officially 1000 days until the first whistle of the first FIFA World Cup match will be sounded in Africa.

The first whistle of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa will be blown on 11 June 2010 and the final game will take place on 11 July 2010.

To commemorate this countdown, Tshwane and the other eight host cities will stage special celebrations in their areas together with the FIFA World Cup Organising Committee South Africa (LOC) this weekend.

Tshwane's 1 000 days event will take place at the Union Buildings with a variety of sporting, music and cultural entertainment.

Festivities at the Union Buildings will kick-start at 8am with street soccer followed by a cultural event of music and dance with performers such as Mafikizolo, Tuks, Medu Nakeng, Blouberg-Dinaka and the Maluleka Cultural Group.

Residents are invited to join in the celebrations. Buses will be deployed to the various areas of Tshwane to pick up residents from 7.30 on Saturday morning.

The countdown commemoration will inform the South African public about the progress made thus far on the 2010 project and also send out a united national message that South Africa and Africa is confident in its ability to host a successful world-class event.

Since South Africa won the right to host the 2010 tournament at a function in Zurich in May 2004, the entire country has continued celebrating the victory through frenzied preparations for the international tournament.

Businesses big and small, soccer enthusiasts and even schoolboys on the playground have all contemplated their possible roles in the world cup.

Billions have already been committed by government towards upgrading infrastructure and preparations are well under way, with the bulk of the work taking place in the nine host cities.

To date R17.4 billion has already been made available to the different provinces for use in the construction and revamping of stadiums.

Crucial milestones in the preparations' timeline, including meeting the deadline for the planning completion for stadiums and transport infrastructure, are successfully being met.

This first phase in government's preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was completed in December 2006. It also involved the selection of host cities and stadiums.

Host city agreements were signed; these are contracts between host cities and FIFA to govern cities' obligations and rights in hosting the World Cup. Legislation, such as the Special Measures Bill, was also adopted.

Next, funding was disbursed to the nine host cities from the National Treasury. Grants for key transport infrastructure projects were made available from the Department of Transport.

Then the development of stadiums and transport infrastructure began - as well as host city projects, the revamping of the major airports and the development of sections of the road network.


A key milestone will be reached next September with the arrival of the FIFA inspection team for their review of the state of readiness construction on the selected stadiums to be used for the Confederations Cup.

These stadiums include the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium where seating will be completed in the next few months and the entire stadium is scheduled for completion in December 2008.

The third phase, World Cup operations, is the culmination of work done in the first two phases.

This is the phase in which the World Cup operations take place which include the adding of final touches to the stadiums and all related infrastructure and the final recruitment and training of the 15 000 volunteers needed for the event.

These thousands of volunteers will be required to have skills or be trained to carry out tasks ranging from being team liaison officers and medical assistants, to logistics, marketing, transport, translations and marshalling.

The world cup is expected to create an additional 600 jobs for South Africans.

October 2009 will mark the handover of all stadiums to FIFA as well as the completion of all supporting infrastructure before the World Cup commences in June 2010. -
 
Sholain Govender BuaNews




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