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Peter Mokaba getting facelift for 2010

PROGRESS: Turftek workers prepare the pitch at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Limpopo for the 2010 World Cup final in June. Pic. Elijar Muxhiana. 24/03/2010. © Sowetan.
PROGRESS: Turftek workers prepare the pitch at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Limpopo for the 2010 World Cup final in June. Pic. Elijar Muxhiana. 24/03/2010. © Sowetan.

THE pitch at the Peter Mokaba Stadium is undergoing a facelift as preparations for the 2010 World Cup finals continue at the Polokwane venue.

The owners of the stadium started to over-seed the summer grass (kikuyu) with the winter grass (rye) last week.

Ndavhe Ramakuela, the director for 2010 in Polokwane, says the process will give the pitch a completely new look, allowing the rye grass to be dominant.

He says the kikuyu grass will last for the duration of the tournament.

Ramakuela says the process of over-seeding will help with the scarification of the already green kikuyu and placing chemically treated sand over it while seeding the rest with the rye.

"This is a scheduled process. We expect it to take between five to seven weeks, a period in which the rye grass would have completely (covered) the surface of the pitch," Ramakuela says.

"It was important for us to delay the process of over-seeding until March when the temperatures are lower than in the earlier months, in which it would have been difficult for rye to grow. When we initially laid the pitch in August it was with a 50/50 combination of kikuyu and rye. The warm weather made it easy for the kikuyu to dominate the rye.

"We worked hand in hand with Richard Hayden, the Fifa pitch specialist, and we are confident that the process we have followed will give us the best pitch, available for use from May 23.

"In addition to over-seeding, the city will use the opportunity to install the Desso stabiliser as a guarantee that pitch levels will not deteriorate and that rye gets a strong foundation to hold onto.

"The same process that was used in the main stadium will be followed at the training venue (the old Mokaba Stadium, which is next to the new one)."

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