| Port Elizabeth: A busy start for PE venue - 12/01/2010 |
Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium is again set for another sporting extravaganza with two major events scheduled to take place at the newly built 2010 World Cup stadium. Two teams are lined up to kickstart the new year in what sporting fans say will be a bonanza. The venue has already received its fair share of success in hosting both national and international sporting events. Bay United, which is currently plying its trade in the lower National First Division, will clash with South Korea on Thursday morning.
|
Full Sunday World report
|
 |
| Johannesburg: Gautrain on track - 10/01/2010 |
Despite earlier doubts about its completion date, the Gautrain route between OR Tambo International Airport and Sandton Station will be ready before the 2010 World Cup.
The construction consortium building the rail link, Bombela Concession Company, has just been given two amounts of R144-million each from the provincial and national governments, and it plans to have the route between the airport and Sandton complete by 27 May. The World Cup starts on 11 June.
|
Full Joburg report
|
|
| Makeover for Nelspruit pitch – 06/01/2010 |
The pitch at the 46 000-seater Mbombela Stadium is being replaced after contractors stripped the original and dug up the clay surface underneath to allow proper drainage. The changes were ordered after an inspection by Fifa in November. This was after a rainy spell had left the new ground waterlogged. The installation of a new pitch would be completed this week, said the city’s World Cup co-ordinator, Differ Mogale. Plans to open the stadium with a friendly between Ghana and Bosnia-Herzegovina on March 3 would go ahead, Mogale added.
|
Full report on the IOL site
|
|
| Mossel Bay: MB confident of 2010 role – 05/01/2010 |
The Mossel Bay municipality remains confident of being able to cash in on the World Cup economic boom and is still trying to persuade Paraguay to base its team there for the event.
According to a report on the IOL site, the South American country had apparently expressed a strong interest in housing its team at the Point Hotel in the southern Cape town, but after an inspection revealed problems with the slope of the training pitch and with the hotel; it has reportedly opted for a venue in Pieter- maritzburg instead.
The Western Cape government had originally set itself a target of getting 10 World Cup teams to sign up for base camps in the province, but the withdrawal of Paraguay means there are now just three confirmations - and none of them are in the Mother City.
|
Full report on the IOL site
|
|
| Mossel Bay: Cape city scores 2010 own goal – 03/01/2010 |
The municipal manager of Mossel Bay, Michele Gratz, has confirmed the coastal town will no longer be hosting the Paraguayan soccer team during the World Cup. The Sunday Times has established that: The practice pitch had a camber almost double the prescribed level acceptable to Fifa and the pitch was looking dusty and bare when a Paraguayan delegation visited last month. The visit came two months after the town council replaced its 2010 World Cup co-ordinator - who declined to comment - with three municipal officials. Sources said the council had not stuck to Fifa guidelines for the field.
|
Full Sunday Times report
|
|
| Durban: Durban fine-tunes 2010 preparations – 31/12/09 |
With the 2010 World Cup just six months away the eThekwini municipality is fine-tuning its plans to ensure that the thousands of visitors expected in Durban enjoy a safe, hassle-free visit. ’All our 2010 projects are proceeding well,’ said Julie-May Ellingson, head of the strategic projects unit and 2010 programme on the council. ’In terms of transport many of our projects have been completed and others are on track for completion by the end of March . Work on all sidewalks, lighting and landscaping is proceeding well. The rehabilitation of the beachfront is also on track and the process of greening the city includes the planting of 62500 trees in Buffelsdraai . The beachfront community has been very accommodating, given all the construction work on the beach front,’ Ellingson said.
|
Full report in The Sowetan
|
|
| Cape Town: BBC excited about Cape Town base – 27/12/09 |
The CFC has successfully facilitated the presence of BBC in Cape Town for 6 weeks prior and during the 2010 SWC. The BBC will have their main presentation studio in Cape Town on top of Somerset Hospital in Green Point.
This is one of the single most significant marketing opportunities that the CFC has been able to facilitate. The BBC will televise 32 live games and this will be presented from their studio in Cape Town, giving at least 200 million viewers a view of Table Mountain, The Waterfront, Cape Town Stadium and Robben Island.
|
Full Film Contact report
|
|
| Port Elizabeth: PE will not host 2010 teams - 22/12/2009 |
While Port Elizabeth is one of nine host cities for the 2010 World Cup, none of the 32 teams will be based in the city, as the Eastern Cape wants to spread the benefits of the tournament across the province. Only Buffalo City (East London) and the King Sabata Dalindyebo (Mthatha) municipalities have applied to become team base camps, following a decision by the provincial Cabinet. This contrasts with the Garden Route, which has attracted four teams – France and Denmark in Knysna, Paraguay in Mossel Bay and Japan in George. While tourism officials have played down the loss of opportunity for Nelson Mandela Bay, Shamwari and Bushman Sands co-owner Adrian Gardiner said he did not understand why Port Elizabeth was not a training camp.
|
Full report in The Herald
|
|
| Buffalo City: BCM lines up soccer coup - 22/12/2009 |
Buffalo City is in line for a major coup with news that African soccer giants Cameroon are considering using East London as their base camp for the Fifa 2010 World Cup next year. A Buffalo City Municipality delegation made up of Executive Mayor Zukisa Faku, Vuyo Zambodla, director in the mayor’s office, and Roy Young, 2010 project manager, went to Yaounde earlier this month. They met with the Cameroon Football Association hierarchy and the government’s sports minister in an attempt to coax them to use Buffalo City.
The strategy – in line with BCM’s 2010 Legacy project and following talks with various stakeholders, including the Sports Minister, the Cameroon FA secretary-general and its president in the Cameroon capital – resulted in an encouraging response.
|
Full report in The Dispatch
|
|
| Durban: KZN crisis to hit World Cup - 20/12/2009 |
The ongoing container crisis in KwaZulu-Natal may hamper the World Cup preparations. Hundreds of trailer trucks that carry high-cube containers with some goods for the coming World Cup soccer tournament are stranded in the province, because the containers are a mere 300mm too high, according to the country’s transport regulations. The containers hold, among other things, marketing goods and equipment for the soccer teams and international media. These items have already landed in the Durban harbour by ship, says Gavin Kelly, spokesperson for the Road Freight Association (RFA).
|
Full FIN24 report
|
|
| Cape Town: Top class training venues selected - 19/12/2009 |
The 10 World Cup teams set to play their group-stage matches in Cape Town will train on two of the country’s finest pitches, says the city. The Athlone and Philippi stadiums have been upgraded and fitted with state-of-the-art Fifa-approved pitches for the tournament. The Argus reports that the two stadiums will be used as World Cup training venues for teams before matches. France and Uruguay will be the first teams to practise in the upgraded stadiums before their opening match in Cape Town on June 11.
|
Full report in The Argus
|
|
| Johannesburg: Another giant football for Hillbrow Tower - 19/12/2009 |
Following the successful launch of a record-breaking constructed football atop Telkom’s Lukasrand Tower in September 2009, it’s the turn of Johannesburg’s skyline to be transformed by the hoisting of a 35 ton fibre glass soccer ball at Telkom’s Hillbrow Tower. The construction and mounting of a gigantic football at the summit of the Lukasrand tower has been officially recognised as a Guinness World Record in the category of ’largest football sculpture’.
The assembling of the Hillbrow Tower ball commenced immediately after the Lukasrand ball was launched. The engineering team that completed the Lukasrand ball also worked on constructing the ball for the Hillbrow tower.
|
Full Totally Mad report
|
|
| Cape Town: 2010 boosts city’s rankings - 19/12/2009 |
Travellers are due to expand their horizons in 2010 with many of the year’s hot destinations expected to be outside of Europe, according to a study of ebookers.com customer bookings. Just two of the online agency’s predicted top ten destinations for next year are in Europe (Rome and Venice), while the US is expected to be popular, with five destinations in the list. The 2010 Fifa World Cup sees Cape Town make the top ten, while rapidly emerging destinations Dubai and Istanbul, the 2010 European capital of culture, also feature.
|
Full Travolution report
|
|
| Cape Town: Minstrels threatens City with legal action - 16/12/2009 |
The moratorium on any non-football events at the Athlone Stadium ahead of the 2010 World Cup is likely to see the City taken to court by the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association this week. After decades of using the stadium as a venue for the traditional annual Cape minstrel competition, the city this year has refused permission for its use because they are worried about the grass on the pitch being damaged. While it won’t host any World Cup matches, the Athlone Stadium is to be used as a training venue, notes an allAfrica.com report. The Minstrel carnival, known as the Kaapse Klopse, is a traditional parade of over 10 000 colourfully dressed minstrels who march through the city on January 2.
|
Full allAfrica.com report allAfrica
|
|
| Johannesburg: Hawkers demand to be included in 2010 plans – 14/12/2009 |
While hawkers’ organisations are still complaining about the manner in which the City of Johannesburg treats them, the city insists its plans are to develop and integrate informal traders into the economy. Just two weeks ago the One Voice of All Hawkers Association (Ovoaha) took to the streets demanding that the city dissolve the Metro Trading Company established to help hawkers in Johannesburg. The Sowetan reports that they also demanded that more stalls be put up to allow more hawkers to trade in the city centre. Ovoaha further demanded that hawkers be included in the city’s plans around trading during the 2010 World Cup.
|
Full report in The Sowetan
|
|
| Cape Town: Mothercity named as top destination – 10/12/2009 |
Cape Town has topped the list of the most popular destinations worldwide for British Airways (BA) travellers next year. The airline compiles a top 10 ’longhaul league table’ with the cities it considers will draw the largest number of international tourists, notes a report on the IoL site. And hotels said they noted an immediate surge in queries and bookings after last week’s 2010 World Cup final draw. Other cities in the top 10 are Istanbul, Las Vegas and New York. BA commercial manager Sue Botes said that having an international airline name Cape Town as the top destination would ’get people’s attention’. She said during the World Cup, the airline has scheduled seven flights a week to the city.
|
Full report on the IoL site
|
|
| Johannesburg: Roads ready for 2010 – 10/12/2009 |
The road infrastructure in Johannesburg will be ready for the 2010 World Cup, said the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA). ’We want to make it a point that people who come here will leave having had a world class city experience. Our first priority is to get the city ready for 2010,’ JRA spokesperson Thulani Makhubela said. He reassured residents the prioritisation of the World Cup would not affect service delivery, notes a News24 report. He acknowledged motorists and pedestrians in the city were becoming frustrated because of potholes in and trenches across roads.
|
Full report on the News24 site
|
|
| Durban: New airport set to begin operational testing – 10/12/2009 |
With more than R7,2-billion having already been ploughed into construction of KwaZulu-Natal’s new international airport at La Mercy, north of Durban, the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) said that the airport’s crucial operational testing phase had already started. ’This is probably the biggest risk to Acsa’s balance sheet, so we have to ensure that we get it working well and as seamlessly as possible,’ said Acsa’s managing director, Monhla Hlahla. The Mercury reports that Acsa’s airport project director, Sean van der Valk, said more than 86% of the R7,8bn development was now complete with about 7 500 construction workers still on site.
|
Full report in The Mercury
|
|
| Johannesburg: Containers the ticket for 2010 shortage – 09/12/2009 |
Soccer fans coming to Johannesburg for the 2010 World Cup could find themselves sleeping in shipping containers - luxury ones, that is. This alternative is aimed at alleviating the shortage of accommodation for overseas visitors during the event. A proposal made to the Johannesburg council will, if accepted, see a temporary luxury hotel constructed out of shipping containers being built on the Houghton Golf Club.
The Star reports that the mobile hotel will consist of 120 single-storey containers, which will be assembled in groups of 15 and erected on the driving range.
|
Full report in The Star
|
|
| Cape Town: Green Point stadium under the spotlight – 09/12/2009 |
Now that the new Green Point stadium is all-but complete - and lit up with a magical soft glow at night - almost all the criticism and the dread that it would downgrade the precinct have melted away, say Meryl Kreuger and Velma Knight, Anne Porter Knight Frank’s agents for Sea Point and Green Point. ’It is impossible not to be impressed,’ said Knight. ’When the lights come on after dark, one has the impression that a benign spaceship has landed here. It is just far enough away not to impinge on the attractive cosmopolitan café district on Somerset Road (which has proliferated over the last year), but close enough to give a feeling that something very exciting, very modern and almost beyond our understanding has happened here.’ According to a report on the iafrica.com site, Kreuger added that almost as impressive as the building itself have been the City Council’s upgrading of the surrounding landscapes and, more particularly, the golf course.
|
Full report on the iafrica.com site
|
|
| Cape Town: Delays in transport projects – 08/12/2009 |
A Parliamentary written reply given by Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele to Don Gumede of the ANC shows that the transport network being prepared for the 2010 World Cup in Cape Town is a long way from being ready for the event. According to the reply circulated on Tuesday, bus-based park and ride facilities which were supposed to have been competed in October this year are still only 43% complete. According to a report on the News24 site, city-wide non-motorised transport plan involving a number of upgrades to the pedestrian and bicycle network in the CBD and the Somerset Road areas was supposed to have been finished in August. The project is currently 28% completed.
|
Full report on the News24 site
|
|
| Durban: Bad news for new stadium – 05/12/2009 |
There’s bad news for Durban’s plans to use the new Moses Mabhida Stadium as a major concert venue to help pay for the R3.1 billion structure, notes a report on the IoL site. Feedback from the public and promoters is that the unpredictable weather makes the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Conference Centre the preferred venue. This week Big Concerts decided to move the first major concert scheduled for the new stadium to the ICC. Singer Elton John and percussionist Ray Cooper were scheduled to perform at the venue next year, but John Langford, Big Concerts’ chief operating officer, said the change was made ’in response to concerns expressed by the Durban public regarding the unpredictable weather conditions in March’.
|
Full report on the IoL site
|
|
| Johannesburg: City geared for football fest – 05/12/2009 |
Joburg may have lost out to the World Cup draw but the City of Gold is ready to welcome visitors for the kickoff come June. Officials have expressed their excitement about the tournament’s potential for South Africa and also Joburg. Speaking to the Saturday Star from the Cape Town International Convention Centre, Sibongile Mazibuko, the executive director of the City of Joburg’s 2010 unit, said it would push full steam ahead with preparations and investment to ensure the opening match goes off without a hitch. ’We are happy about the teams that were drawn in the group with South Africa. It’s going to be a tough opening game at Ellis Park, but we have to try and win it.’
|
Full Saturday Star report
|
|
| Port Elizabeth: Grand plans for Bay Fan Fest – 04/12/2009 |
The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has allocated a budget of between R15-million and R20-million for next year’s Fan Fest to be staged at St George’s Park for the duration of the 2010 World Cup. The Herald reports that Bay soccer fans who are unable to secure tickets to the tournament need not be disappointed as they will be able to attend the Fan Fest to enjoy the games and the atmosphere. Those who attend will be able to watch matches aired live on big screens with hi-tech sound equipment, along with other entertainment and activities.
|
Full report in The Herald
|
|
| Johannesburg: Tent City pitched for 2010 – 03/12/2009 |
Johannesburg has plenty of accommodation catering for all kinds of visitors, but with the 2010 World Cup on the way, more rooms will be needed to accommodate the flood of visitors to the city. To help ease this impending accommodation demand, the City is setting up a ’Tent City’, or tent camp, where visitors can stay during the World Cup, enjoying an atmosphere of camaraderie and fun. From 4 June to 16 July 2010, Tent City will be set up near the busy M1 highway at Waverley Park, in Waverley, according to Sipho Mbethe, from the City’s 2010 operations unit. ’The Tent City will provide affordable accommodation for visitors and also alleviate the accommodation problems that we expect during the World Cup,’ he said.
|
Full press release
|
|
| Cape Town: City set to take centre stage – 01/12/2009 |
Come this Friday evening and the rugby-mad South African city of Cape Town will be temporarily transformed into the football capital of the world. As dusk envelopes one of the most popular international tourist attractions, the Cape Town International Convention Centre plays hosts to the 2010 World Cup draw scheduled to be broadcast live in almost 200 countries. Sports24 reports that Jerome Valcke, France-born secretary-general of world football governing body FIFA, will conduct a draw designing to split the 31 qualifiers and hosts South Africa into eight groups.
|
Full Sports24 report
|
|
| Cape Town: City’s traffic headache – 01/12/2009 |
Cape Town’s 2010 roadworks chaos and the resulting traffic delays are expected to continue until at least the end of April, says Mayor Dan Plato. Speaking at a briefing ahead of Friday’s 2010 World Cup final draw, Plato appealed to Cape Town drivers to be patient and promised that the work was ahead of schedule. Recently, the N1 was closed for more than 12 hours to allow work on the Koeberg Interchange, prompting major traffic congestion and sparking outrage from motorists. According to a report on the IoL site, Plato said the roadworks chaos would probably end towards the end of April or early in May.
|
Full report on the IoL site
|
|
| Cape Town: City launches ’Beat the Kicks 2010’ project – 01/12/2009 |
A Cape Town community project ’Beat the Kicks 2010’ – launched recently – aims to protect children and vulnerable adults during the 2010 World Cup against possible sexual and drug abuse, notes a report in The Herald. Dr Ethelwynn Stellenberg, chairman of the Local Integrated Network of Kuils River, said the project had been initiated because of concerns that the World Cup would bring with it people who would exploit children and uneducated adults. Due to unemployment and poor education, Stellenberg said, South Africans were vulnerable and liable to ’grab at any opportunity that falls their way, even if it is only R1 or R2’.’Everyone thinks of 2010 bringing with it all nice things and opportunities, but social pathologies are going to increase, such as prostitution, drugs and alcohol abuse,’ she said.
|
Full report in The Herald
|
|
| Johannesburg: Another new hotel for OR Tambo – 30/11/2009 |
Johannesburg will have another new airport hotel in time for the 2010 World Cup when the luxury Premier Hotel OR Tambo International opens in March. Only 500 metres from the Gautrain Station and 1.2km from the Terminals, reached by a free shuttle bus, the 280 room Premier Hotel OR Tambo will be a full service four star-plus hotel, notes a report on the iafrica.com site. Costing in excess of R300-million, the hotel’s large rooms (45 of which are suites with their own lounges) and public areas will all offer free wi-fi internet connections and other facilities will include a spa, swimming pool deck, gym, restaurant and two bars along with 24 hour room service.
|
Full iafrica.com report
|
|
| Cape Town: City to enforce tough 2010 regulations – 29/11/2009 |
The City of Cape Town 2010 Fifa World Cup Bylaw, as the special regulations are known, will be in effect until December 12. A number of major events in the city have been affected by the regulations. They include the Obz Fest, an annual street market and party thrown by Observatory retailers and restaurants in the first week of December, which has been cancelled, and a World Aids Day march in Main Road, Salt River, which has been scaled down to a series of lectures. In terms of the city’s agreement with Fifa, any event or festival that could compromise the football federation’s plans must be cancelled or postponed.
|
Full Sunday Times report
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CALL US
+27 (0)21-4216297
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
