I am beginning to consider if the stadium was perhaps a deliberate miscalculation. How else is it possible to explain why the many warnings signs that was prevalent before construction was ignored? In 2007 Arthur Weinberg chairperson of Cape Town Environmental Protection Association {CEPA} publically challenged the City of Cape Town and the Provincial Government to a hold a free and fair referendum. He requested that the ratepayers of Cape Town be properly consulted on the building of an estimated R3 billion stadium {actual building cost stands currently at R 4 257 146 589 billion}. In response, the former City of Cape Town spokesperson Pieter Cronje said “The city will oppose any legal action to halt construction of the Green Point Stadium”. Cronje ended with “The city would like to know whom CEPA represents and who their members are”. On the 5th November 2010 Anthony Leiman and Arthur Weinberg wrote a lengthy article in the Cape Argus asking several very important questions which are worth repeating as it continues to haunt the origins of the stadium, this includes the following: Who decided that Green Point was the only suitable location? Was it Sepp Blatter or Thabo Mbeki, did former Premier Ebrahim Rasool and former Mayor Helen Zille have any genuine choice? According to Weinberg, on 23rd November 2005, Rasool received a call from Essop Pahad who said that the presidency felt that Cape Town should consider proposing a semi-final match in a stadium with a capacity of about 65 000 at Green Point. While this question may seem redundant at this late stage, there are some critics who believe that, if Sepp Blatter strong armed Thabo Mbeki; the City on behalf of its ratepayers may have a legal case against Fifa for reparations of some sort. Furthermore in 2006 the City commissioned Bayette Development Consulting to evaluate alternative venues for the World Cup. The report rated a stadium in Green Point last out of six. If Green Point was a fait accompli, why commission a report and in the end, why was this report then disregarded? The City also spent a great deal of ratepayer’s money commissioning “business plans” with two international companies. The first was discredited by the second who was also later discredited. What happened to these reports, did the city request or receive a refund for these discredited reports? That the city paid Sail Stadefrance R110.5 million from 1st Jan 2009 until 31st October 2010 to operate the Stadium, {which was only completed in March 2010} one must ask, what exactly Sail Stadefrance did to earn this staggering amount. Media reports in 2010 suggested that the City was concerned about the medium to long term maintenance of the Stadium and intended to request national government for assistance. Since 2010, what remedial steps have been taken to reign in maintenance cost and what was the response from national government? Cllr Yagyah Adams Cape Muslim Congress
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