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Offline Jah Gol

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South Africa: 'Ahead of Schedule for 2010 FIFA World Cup'
« on: May 15, 2007, 07:05:38 PM »

South Africa says it is beginning regular briefings on the country's readiness to host the 2010 World Cup in Soccer. It says it wants to counter persistent rumors that it will likely lose the event because it is behind schedule in preparations. VOA's Delia Robertson reports from Johannesburg that, at the first briefing, Deputy Finance Minister Jabu Moleketi said South Africa is ahead of schedule to deliver a well-organized and safe World Cup.

Moleketi told a media briefing in Pretoria that South Africa is ahead of where other countries, such as Germany, were in preparations three years ahead of the event. He said work has started on five new stadiums, and on upgrading five others.

"And all the five new stadia... will be completed in time," said Moleketi. "We have to complete them by October 2009, and a number of them will be completed a month or two earlier than that. And that indicates how serious we are, and to a large extent how ready we are."

The local organizing committee and the government have been stung by persistent rumors that South Africa will never be ready to host the world's premier soccer event, despite assurances by FIFA to the contrary. Moleketi says the pessimists will, in his words, "have to eat their own words come 2009."

South Africa has successfully hosted several major sporting and international events, including rugby and cricket world cups in 1995 and 2003; the Africa Cup of Nations in soccer in 1996; and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.

The government is injecting $1.4 billion into infrastructure for the event, including a rapid-rail network for the Johannesburg-Pretoria complex. Moleketi says other venues will also benefit.

"The plans are in place and the plans include not just the building of roads, widening of roads, but also the procurement of buses and also the installation and I think a very, very innovative decision and an operation from the metros [cities], the rapid bus system," he said.

Critics have focused on South Africa's high crime rate as another reason the cup cannot be held in the country. While the numbers of many serious crimes, including murder, have been decreasing in recent years, others such as rape, have increased. Moleketi says the authorities will step up anti-crime initiatives.

"More resources are going to be given to the South African Police Service to increase the personnel. There will be more 40,000 new police that will be in place between now and 2010," he said. "They will also improve on their technology because policing is not just about people, its about technology."

South Africans hope the FIFA World Cup will lend impetus to the country's economy, create jobs, and boost its burgeoning tourist industry. The government and local organizing committee say they realize that to achieve these goals, they not only have to live up to their promises, they need to demonstrate that they are doing so.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-05-15-voa38.cfm

Offline Zeppo

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World Cup stadium construction delayed by strikes
« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2009, 10:31:49 AM »
World Cup stadium construction delayed by strikes

Construction of one of South Africa’s 2010 World Cup stadiums will miss its completion deadline after hundreds of workers were fired for going on an illegal strike, a spokesman for the contractor said Thursday.

The delay comes ahead of Friday’s start of ticket sales for world soccer’s premier event, which is being held in Africa for the first time.

Eugene du Toit, a spokesman for the Mbombela Stadium Joint Venture, said the stadium in the eastern town of Nelspruit would not be completed by April as planned. Instead, it should be finished toward the end of the year, six months before South Africa is to stage the event.

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Offline Zeppo

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Re: World Cup stadium construction delayed by strikes
« Reply #2 on: July 08, 2009, 02:20:59 PM »
World Cup construction workers strike in SAfrica

South African construction workers went on an indefinite strike Wednesday at stadiums being built for the 2010 World Cup—a move that could derail Africa’s historic first World Cup tournament.

Thousands of workers at stadiums across the country put down their tools after wage negotiations deadlocked earlier this week. Workers are demanding a 13 percent pay increase while employers are offering 10.4 percent.

The strike could delay completion of flagship projects such as the Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg and stadiums in Cape Town and Durban. Other stadiums in smaller towns have also been affected.

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"Donovan was excellent. We knew he was a good player, but he really didn't do anything wrong in the whole game and made it difficult for us."
- Xavi

Offline WestCoast

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Construction strike in South Africa could affect World Cup
« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2009, 08:59:51 AM »
Construction strike in South Africa could affect World Cup
Wed Jul 8, 2009 8:44am EDT
By Phumza Macanda and Alison Raymond

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African construction workers began an indefinite strike on Wednesday, halting work at stadiums for the 2010 World Cup in the biggest industrial action since new President Jacob Zuma took office in May.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said the action by about 70,000 workers would continue until employers gave in to their demand for a 13 percent pay rise. The companies have so far refused to go beyond 10 percent.

Escalating strike action is a major challenge for Zuma, who has to balance the demands of the union and leftist allies who helped bring him to office with keeping market-friendly policies at a time Africa's biggest economy is in its first recession in 17 years.

The union, South Africa's biggest, said most of its members in the building sector had joined the protest at sites for the stadiums and other big infrastructure projects.

"The numbers that I'm getting seem to tell us that there has been a total shutdown today," said union spokesman Lesiba Seshoka.

Earlier he said: "Our intention is to take it forever, so as long as the employers are not bringing what we want to the table."

Although the strike will affect construction work at mines, it should not have a direct impact on production in the world's biggest producer of platinum, also a major gold producer.

Eurasia Group analyst Mike Davies said there was some way to go before the strike became a major concern, but it was being closely followed by local and foreign investors ahead of the World Cup.

"They will be looking for signs that Zuma will be unafraid to make difficult decisions when the time comes," he said.

FULL UNION BACKING

South Africa's powerful COSATU trade union federation fully backed the strike, saying it was as passionate about the World Cup as anyone but would not tolerate stadiums being built by workers who were underpaid or in unhealthy conditions.

Officials have said the 10 World Cup stadiums, half of them new, will be delivered by December, although there have been reports of possible delays at the venue in Cape Town.

Shares in South African construction firms initially fell because of uncertainty over the strike, but recovered later. Firms likely to suffer include Murray & Roberts Holdings Ltd, WBHO and Group Five.

Work also stopped on the mass transit Gautrain high-speed rail project. Scores of striking workers danced and sang at the site of a new station in Johannesburg's Sandton financial district.

South Africa's state-owned utility Eskom's 4,800 megawatt Medupi power station could also be affected, slowing efforts to fill a chronic power shortage in the country.

Expansion work on the Richards Bay Coal Terminal export facility could be delayed further, NUM said this week.

Unions across sectors have demanded double-digit pay hikes as inflation declines at a slower pace that previously expected, after peaking above 13 percent in August last year.

But the government has little room for maneuver. Zuma has so far neither bent to the union demands nor openly challenged them.

(Writing by Marius Bosch; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)
http://www.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idUSTRE5673FO20090708


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Offline Zeppo

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WC 2010: South Africans insist they will be ready
« Reply #4 on: July 12, 2009, 03:51:30 AM »
South Africans insist they will be ready

The girl, just several steps off the tour bus full of English rugby fans, can't be older than 15 or 16. She still is cradling her catered lunch in her hands when she is startled by the image.

"Oh, my God," she says.

Here, at the Hector Peterson Memorial in Soweto, is a larger-than-life-size replica of the photograph that galvanized public opinion around the world.

This memorial is sacred ground to black South Africans, commemorating the 13-year-old Peterson -- just one of many youths to die in Soweto in June 1976. Many of them were wearing school uniforms, defending themselves with trash can covers against police bullets. Tens of thousands of youngsters, many without informing their parents, had massed to march and protest the apartheid government's edict that they be instructed in Afrikaans, the language associated with the oppressive government at that time.

(continue)

"Donovan was excellent. We knew he was a good player, but he really didn't do anything wrong in the whole game and made it difficult for us."
- Xavi

 

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