Why Cape Town stadium should be demolished - OPINION | Politicsweb
- ️Thu Mar 27 2025
OPINION
Why Cape Town stadium should be demolished
Terry Crawford-Browne |
10 July 2012
Terry Crawford-Browne says inquiry needed into how the city was lumped with this expensive white elephant
Are South Africans actually serious about upholding our constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and in ridding our country of the scourge of corruption? Those are the serious issues motivating my suggestion that the Cape Town stadium should be demolished.
I asked Premier Helen Zille on June 30 to appoint a commission of inquiry to investigate how and why the stadium was foisted upon Cape Town by FIFA and the national government. Secondly, what remedial action (if any) can be taken before the stadium degenerates into an eyesore and slum. Apparently its roof is already leaking (Cape Times, June 28) in our Cape winter storms.
FIFA, with central government collusion, was adamant that the stadium had to be built on Green Point Common. We Capetonians are now saddled with the consequences of a financial "white elephant."
Green Point Common is land vested by King George V in 1923 for use by the people of Cape Town in perpetuity for recreational purposes only. In terms of that land grant, the Common may not be used for commercial purposes.
Without commercialisation of Green Point Common, the stadium can never be economically viable. This is the crux of more than a dozen restrictions, which the Cape Town City Council is now illegally attempting to revoke "to leverage the space for food outlets, retail stores and even a nightclub - all paying tenants."
In addition, the City Council is trying to foist the stadium onto the Western Province rugby union. Cape Town already has a glut of shopping centres, hotels and restaurants in the aftermath of the World Cup.
Councillor Grant Pascoe declares the stadium was part of a "package deal." What "package deal?" One can immediately "smell a rat" reminiscent of the arms deal.
The Green Point Development Framework by the Cape Town Planning and Development Directorate dated October 1997 is instructive. It reveals a determined effort by some city officials, undoubtedly in collusion with the notoriously corrupt municipal politicians of the time, to destroy the Common.
The "vision" on page 21 sets priority 1 as supporting the growth of the tourism industry by acting "as a catalyst for higher order facilities... hotels, business, retail and residential accommodation." Priority 4 includes "high order institutional infrastructure such as museums, education centres, conference centre, etc."
Chapter ten of the Constitution requires public administration to be "efficient, economic, accountable, transparent," and "a high standard of professional ethics must be promoted and maintained." In short, public administration must aspire to be corruption-free.