WHILE most 2010 Soccer World Cup stadium construction and upgrade projects in SA have overspent their budgets, training ground Orlando Stadium has kept within its R280m budget.

City of Johannesburg authorities said yesterday all the material for the stadium was bought long before the prices increased.

“We bought all the material in 2006 and kept it on site. What we couldn’t accommodate, like the roof, we found alternative storage space for,” said Deon Venter, the city’s official in the community development department.

Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo said price increase projections were conducted even before contracts for the construction of the stadium were signed, as escalations were expected.

“There were interactions and engagements before the contracts were signed. We created the foundation to make sure that problems that happened elsewhere did not happen at Orlando.”

The stadium will be used as a training venue during the tournament. Its construction was 75% funded by the City of Johannesburg and 25% by the national government. It has been reported that the World Cup would cost the government R3bn more than the planned R9,8bn. Experts say this is because of increasing building material prices and general inflation.

Unlike at match venues across the country, construction had not been delayed at Orlando as there had been no labour disputes.

Disputed overtime payments and bonuses brought construction to a halt a number of times at the Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit, the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in Port Elizabeth, Greenpoint stadium in Cape Town, Peter Mokaba stadium in Polokwane and the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban. The City of Johannesburg said the first phase of the Orlando construction was 94% complete and that the entire facility would be completed in four months.

Councillor Ruby Mathang said labour disputes had not taken place because the building process was “people driven”.

“We sourced labour from across the entire Soweto area. We met community liaison officers and constantly had meetings with labour. The success was because people wanted to see this project succeed,” said Mathang.