2010 world cup and power cuts in Cape Town

[oliver]

Executive mayor Helen Zille: "We cannot have the World Cup, whether or not we have a stadium, (unless we can) up the capacity to generate electricity by 60%."

The city has experienced sporadic and scheduled power cuts over the past few months due to a fault at Koeberg (the main power source in Cape Town). Though somewhat annoying, it is hardly surprising, seeing that some of the structures in place are more than 60 years old!

People are saying that Cape Town may not be able to host the world cup in light of the recent adversities. Give me a break. I for one think this is utter rubbish and put it down to nothing more than the mass hysteria that seems to often hit the media and the masses before any big event - and particularly after some vague dependancy on an issue currently in the media have been established. Let's be honest, SA may not have the most efficient government in the world but given 4 years I would hope that any city, no matter how large, could have these structures in place in this time.

Experts have said that R200 million will be needed to take the power capacities to where they will need to be by 2010.

One of the potential sources of energy is to come from a "green" energy source - namely the wind-driven generators at Darling Wind Farm. R70 million has been spent on this as a test. It is of course high risk financially speaking, but may prove extremely beneficial. Of course alternate energy doesn't come cheap and will be provided at 25% extra cost to that provided by Eskom. This is expected to be available in 2007.

Personally I'm all for green energy and I believe that no cost (well within practical reason) is too large in the face of environmental destruction. (As a separate issue altogether, I just wonder how much of that money will be taken and used at the governments "discretion" in taxes or whatever form they choose)

Environmental issues aside, I'll put my money on the world cup most definitely being held in Cape Town. Would be a bit of a pity (or ridiculous) if we built the stadium and didn't have the power to fuel it

[Ming]

Cape Town authorities have lambasted the city council for "wasting time" over the stadium for a 2010 World Cup semi-final and denying the city the opportunity to host part of the Confederation Cup in 2009.

The Confederation Cup is a World Cup rehearsal tournament staged by the host nation a year before the mega event.

It features the host nation, the world champions and the six continental champions and draws a large number of fans from around the world.

Fifa's Local Organizing Committee announced the cities that could host it, and Cape Town was not among them.

LOC communications manager Tumi Makgabo said this was because the proposed African Renaissance Stadium in Green Point was set to be completed only by October 2009, while the event was in June.

This isn't a time of year associated with clear thinking - it's more an occasion for unclear drinking.

But however unreasonable and unseasonal it might seem, clear thinking on Green Point stadium is what's demanded right now, and so is plenty of hard work.

If we wait for everyone to drift back from holidays, the 2010 World Cup may have passed us by.

Anyone responsible for making the big calls on the stadium should be on duty throughout the festivities or, at the very least, on standby for instant decisions.

This includes judges, lawyers, local action groups, planners, consultants, engineers, architects, councillors, Danny Jordaan, the mayor, the premier, Uncle Tom Cobbley, Tannie Evita and all.

It's also a time for everyone to forget looking in the rear-view mirror. We've made a mess of this process, primarily by wasting at least 18 precious months after Fifa's hosting vote before announcing the Green Point decision.

That was the squandered window for consultation, appropriate assessments and legal actions, and also the time in which to come up with some clever financial engineering that could have engaged local rugby authorities and soccer clubs in some kind of ownership of the stadium post-2010, thereby given it greater viability.

So we've ended up attempting to frantically shoe-horn all of this stuff into a year that included a change in city government, after which the new councillors were entitled, I would say obligated, to take a hard look at what they were committing the city to.

Given all this, it was inevitable we would come up short. Equally inevitably, the situation has got hopelessly polarised.

Anyone opposing the stadium is "part of a small group of privileged whites" denying the city an ever-wilder number of billions of rands in investment (R10bn is the latest massive official thumbsuck).

And those in the other camp are painted as impractical, corrupt, greedy, undemocratic or mad in their backing of "a white elephant".

That's history and should be consigned to the dustbin. All the parties need to look at where we are now and then determine what can and should be done in the face of alarming deadlines.

We also need some clarity on alternatives. If there is no Green Point, can we amend the Athlone plans to accommodate group matches, and is Newlands out of the question because of its rugby ownership and cluttered surrounds?

The negative answers to those questions have been shrouded in the intimidating bluster of those trying to force the issue on Green Point.

It's not a catastrophe if no games are held here. We will find other ways to attract World Cup-related traffic, but it certainly would be a heavy blow. It will increase our already damaging psychological and financial distance from the rest of the country and, come 2010, we will feel like Cinderella without a fairy godmother, a pumpkin or some mice to get us to the kicking of the ball.

This is totally pathetic, a simple solution would be to target areas where electric is not being payed for as well as areas where electric is being stolen and just kill off those grids. Then there would be more than sufficient power for the paying public. Afterall the paying public should have the final say as customers, this is the democratic way and it is sad to see things being done under the table as they are in south africa