Talks delay start to stadium

By SIVUYILE MANGXAMBA
Staff Writer

Negotiations to reduce the cost of constructing the 2010 Green Point stadium will see the starting time delayed by at least two months.

The initial date for the principal contractor to move on site and start the construction of a 68 000-seater was originally scheduled for January 16, but that has not happened.

If an agreement was reach-ed soon, city officials said stadium construction could start at the end of March.

"We are negotiating with the preferred bidder to try lower the tender price … we hope to conclude this before the end of the month," City of Cape Town spokesman for 2010 Pieter Cronje said yesterday.

This comes on the back of an emphatic "no" from the national Treasury, which has stated that it will not increase the budget of stadium construction.

The government allocated R8.4 billion for the construction and renovation of stadiums to be used for the World Cup. But the tenders for the stadiums have now gone beyond their allocated budgets - mostly owing to a rise in the price of steel and cement.

In fact tenders for the five new stadiums, which need to be finished by December 2009, were more than R2bn over, but robust negotiations were underway to try to reduce the price.

Experts in the construction industry believe that once actual work starts costs will escalate even higher as there would be a huge demand for cement and steel.

Cronje said the city was hoping to conclude its negotiations with the preferred bidder by next Wednesday.

The Local Organising Committee has confirmed that it is due to visit Cape Town and meet city officials on February 2 as part of assessing progress in the negotiations to reduce costs.

Speaking to the Cape Argus, LOC chief executive Danny Jordaan said they were visiting the host cities as part of ensuring that everything was on track.

"We have made good progress," said Jordaan, in reference to the negotiations.

The city was also due to give a report back to the national Treasury once the negotiations were concluded.

The possibility of re-tendering was being considered by the city, but Cronje told the Cape Argus today that they were focusing all their energies on the negotiations.

"That is something that was raised as a possibility," said Cronje in reference to the option of re-tendering if the negotiations were not successful.

In spite of this, Cronje was optimistic that they were on track to start construction at the end of March.

Published on the web by Cape Argus on January 25, 2007.