By Henri du Plessis and John Yeld
The government has committed itself to spending about R242-billion to prepare for the Fifa soccer World Cup in 2010 - over half of the country's annual budget.
But all the money is going into the development of infrastructure that will remain for future use, said Vuyisa Qunta, spokesperson for the ministry of sport and recreation's 2010 World Cup office.
The figure was first confirmed by Butana Khompela, chairman of the national assembly's portfolio committee on sport, in a news report on Wednesday.
Appeal for proper financial models But it caused alarm when Khompela called it a figure guaranteed to Fifa by the government to cover shortfalls in preparations.
Continues Below ↓
Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille further emphasised her appeal for proper financial models of the expenditure on World Cup preparations, when she first heard the figure.
Zille is to meet representatives of Fifa's local organising committee and the provincial administration today to discuss the financing of the new stadium.
"Statistics quoted by the ANC in (Wednesday's) newspapers show just how important it is for us to understand the financing of the World Cup before we sign contracts worth millions of rands," Zille said.
"Butana Khompela, chairperson of parliament's portfolio committee on sport, has said the government has pledged R242-billion for the World Cup.
'An extraordinary amount of money' "This is an extraordinary amount of money, and we need to understand whether this statistic is accurate, and what this money will be used for.
"We obviously want the World Cup to go ahead. The only question is how do we meet the requirements affordably?"
Referring to her decision to put the process for the new stadium in Cape Town on ice this week, Zille said she had "merely asked for a moratorium of one week on the signing of new contracts, so that we can understand the financial modelling of the project".
Continues...
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
