The Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium will be completed by the March 2009 deadline set by FIFA and the South African Football Association (SAFA).

This comes after the municipality's readiness for the 2009 Confederation Cup was brought into question earlier this year.

This is according to Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality's Executive Director for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Errol Heynes, who was addressing fellow host city representatives, the French Trade Commission and members from the French Embassy, on Monday.

“The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is the only city to build a brand new stadium, but is also the only city to also host the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup.

“Although the initial target set for completion of the stadium was set for December 2008, it has been extended to March 2009 and we are on track."

Outstanding development at the stadium includes road works around the stadium, the general finishing off of the west wing, the insulation of Information Technology (IT) items, landscaping and fencing, said Mr Heynes.

The municipality will host eight matches during the world cup and the 48 000-seater stadium is about one kilometre from the beach front and right on the banks of a lake.

"This allows for enormous potential for growth and development", he said.

"We see the stadium as a catalyst for the building of a new economic node in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality," he said, adding the world cup will significantly benefit Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) in terms of job creation, economic and skills development and legacy building.

In terms of creating a public transport system capable of dealing with the influx of thousands of visitors, Mr Heynes said the municipality will procure 450 buses as well as 2 000 mini-buses for the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system, which involves the creation of a dedicated bus lane within the city.

To avoid creating tension with existing taxi bosses, the municipality has come up with a unique idea of giving taxi organisations ownership in the BRT system in order to avoid people losing their livelihood and in the interests of harmonising existing business with infrastructure development.

Five road projects in and around Port Elizabeth have been completed, and a tender has been put out for an access road project, whilst the Public Transport Operations Plan Implementation Programme is firmly in place, he said.

Some of the challenges facing the municipality include the limited number of contractors within the municipality, Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), and capacity constraints in the delivery of BRT developments, said Mr Heynes.

Molo says: “ We are so excited about the progress of the 2010 World Cup and we are sharing everything we know with you.”

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