Selby Makgotho

Selby Makgotho

The Polokwane municipality will receive funding from the Department of Sport and Recreation for the construction of a large sports complex.

The funding, to the tune of R696million, was confirmed by municipality spokesman Simon Mokoatedi, who said that construction of the new 45000-seat Peter Mokaba Sports Complex would start next month.

Mokoatedi said: "This venue is one of the stadiums that have been earmarked to host some of the eagerly awaited World Cup matches in 2010."

The municipality said yesterday that the transfer of funds would only commence after the allocation had been advertised in the Government Gazette, a contract between the municipality and the sport department had been signed and the municipality had provided a stadium procurement strategy to the department.

The new facility will be constructed adjacent to the existing Peter Mokaba Stadium and will be known as the Peter Mokaba Sports Complex.

The facility has been named after the late Peter Mokaba, the fiery former ANC Youth League leader who later became deputy minister for environmental affairs in the new democratic government.

Mokoatedi said the municipality was currently finalising the tendering process and that the contractor would be appointed before the end of December.

"We anticipate that work will go on until December 2009," he said.

Mokoatedi said the municipal engineers had initially estimated that the new facility would cost R800million.

He said that the building of the complex would be launched at a sod-turning ceremony early next month to enable the contractors to start with the construction.