SA applies finishing touches to World Cup stadiums

Well done and congratulations South Africa! Just show your critics you can do it - that's the only way to prove these everlasting moaners wrong. It will be a great World Cup in a great country.

I agree. Go South Africa.

Good news ,well done Mzantsi.

Mzanzi Fo Sho !

Its good to see South Africans being positive about their own thing. If this was a negative headline you would see your pessimists posting a number of comments.
We all know that we are not living in heaven this is south africa with all that comes with it, but we have to keep that fire burning, the fire of hope, hope that in one day all will be alright for each and every south african across all races, financial backgrounds and religious beliefs. Well done and congratulations South Africa!

'However, there are questions around the government spending about R10-billion, excluding host city contributions, in a country where poverty affects over 40% of the population' And where are those questions coming from? We all know the cost benefits of hosting this event. Our fight to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment will be thoroughly boosted by the revenue to be accrued from this spectacle. So those 'so called questions' do not arise.

Lamuntu Lamuntu

I echo your sentiments!! Even in an article that is supposed to be positive, the M&G cannot let an opportunity pass to dampen our spirits with so-called "questions" from certain sectors of our country society.

@Lamuntu... dude, if you seriously think that we as a nation, financially recoup the costs of the stadiums, within the space of that one glorious month...then think again. You telling me that outlay like that can be offset by some safari, and lounging on the beach, hookers, transport, boozing and curios... then i don't know. If we'd built hospitals, meaningful road upgrades, and housing for the poor.. then we'd have a proper return on our collective investment, that is useful and lasting. We'll be left with a world cup hangover comprising oversized stadiums and unsustainable B&Bs everywhere. And i'm not being pessimistic here, i just ask questions about wisdom in spending.. Is this cup the new beemer parked by the shack, which houses 5 pot bellied kids covered in flies?

Where are the unpatriotic prohets of doom who doubted our country's ability to be on time with these stadiums! Indeed the high tech Moses Mabhida stadium in KZN is streets better than Wembley in England! We congratulate the engineering and construction companies that proved SA'S prowess! Most off all we salute the workers on whose sweat these stadiums are nearing completion or are completed!

THIS WILL BE THE BEST WORLD CUP EVER!! VIVA LOC, VIVA!!

@touché douché
"Is this cup the new beemer parked by the shack, which houses 5 pot bellied kids covered in flies?"

couldn't agree more. But anyhow this is typically what black people do. They stay in some backroom in the township with no proper sanitation or even a chair to sit, just so they can be see in beemers and guccis, while their brothers and sister are unable to get descent education......it is typical of black. So next time you see them on the road in a beemer, as if you can come visit them where they stay or if you can go visit their mother where she stays. You'll see that this excessive spending just epitomises them.

the amount spent on these things could've gone a long way towards building proper schools, proper skills development institutions and looking after the 1.7million AIDS orphans.

Danny Jordaan for president of SA!!!!. it seems he is the only visible leader who doen't only talk but actually follows up his talk with action. And oh he is humble too, I travelled with him from JHB to capwtown yesterday, he was standing with the rest of us in the queue, no blue light or bling bling. Watch some promisco*s, arrongant, fat, pea brains idiots coming to steal the lime lite from this wonderful South African when the worldcup starts.

These are the sort of leader that South Africa needs. Althought I disagree with the whole world cup hosting thing; I want to congratulate him for the job well done.

It's as simple as this:

Just to get a 10% return on investment on 10 Billion spent on the stadia alone, we will require a net (excluding maintenance, financing cost, security etc) income of 1 Billion per annum from all 10 stadia alone.
Converted into “bums on seats” @ say R 25 per person, we do require some 40 Million people per year to attend to some sport event in these stadia (exclude Rugby, they’ve got their own stadia).
This means for each of the stadia we require 4 Million spectators a year or 11.000 on every day of each year.
Please remember: This is a best case scenario!!!
Any further questions?
Oh and btw. Look at the other money spent on infrastructure. Would a 4 week event and some immeasurable and speculative increase in subsequent tourist numbers justify such expense? Will the poor be enabled to empower themselves through this or should we have rather spend money elsewhere?

Jissus, ekse, but when that kickoff whistle sounds, I'm gonna howl and vuvu with the best of them, forgetting my cynical self for one month...Woza 2010...it's gonna be an underpants-buster!

Mothopele you epitomise everything racist! You despise the black man, yet you feel fit to use an african name as pseudonym! What hypocrisy! Typical steotyping everything black. You are bitterly disapointed that a black govt. deliver on the promises they made to FIFA!

People like you are dreaming to the return of the happy old days of apartheid. I'm feeling sorry that you are a bitter and defeated man! I guess you have no education to speak off, in order to drive that Beemer. For your info, I also drive a BMW and I am not living in shack with potbellied kids. I can tell you if you drive a BMW, its sheer driving pleasure! GROW UP FOOL!1

Wicked! :) Can't wait, counting the days, Friday is going to be exciting as well, we will finally see who we play against, please no Netherlands, Spain or England. WOZA 2010!

I admit, I did not think they could do it, but as I have said before will admit when I am wrong. My son coming back from New York for Xmas, said our ORT airport is one if not the best airport he has been through and he travels extensively world wide. Congrats for pulling it off

I don't believe the expenditure's worth it either. This country will never ever recoup the outlay. There will be short term gains to some people- vuvuzela makers maybe, and hotels and so on, and I hope the architectural and engineering professions, and the construction industry make piles of money out of it- but a huge long term burden of paying for empty stadia.

And remember that it's private enterprise that's built these stadia, not Danny and his LOC. Building things is nothing new... SA's had a great engineering profession and construction industry for ages- you pay them money, they design and build stuff, it's what they do. Sure the stadia are great and there were no doubt huge technical challenges to overcome in the design and construction, but they're really just things which our civil engineering industry deals with every day.

So don't be surprised that the stadia are built- all it took was money on the one hand (and that's the problem) and technical expertise on the other (which wasn't ever going to be a problem)