Written by:Timothy Biggar, Bheka Mbeje, Njabulo Zikode.

The Moses Mabhida Stadium, it’s an amazing achievement with an even more amazing price tag. In fact, the cost is as of recent surveys, estimated to be around the astounding price of between R2.2bn and R2.5bn. Two Billion is a lot of money, but more than that, it is a lot to borrow. So in the attempts of both rectifying and overcoming this quaint but not unforeseeable cost; we as citizens, have been stuck with the financial burden. Fair enough, the municipal government is the government elect, but in order to justify this price, we want to know what we are paying for. After all, that is the right of all financers.

The Moses Mabhida Stadium really is a sight for sore eyes; more than that though, it is something that we as Durbanites can be proud of. Once you see its many grand angles, it becomes immediately clear where all that money went. Unfortunately, for many people of the city, that is about as far as the joy and pride go.

‘The people’ is a broad and difficult to define term, so for the purposes of this article, and to be more specific, the people being alluded to are of course the poverty stricken. And in our recent articles, which can be found in the same news portal, we gave brief insights into how these people might be affected by the FIFA World Cup and its many subsequent projects. But how does the stadium's construction affect them? Well our taxes have increased, but that is an inevitable outcome of this economic climate. Moreover, the tax increases have not been so large as to definitively destroy the people who are paying them. And as for the informal settlements, well most do not pay taxes, so this too is not the major problem for them. After a huge and costly project like that of the stadium, it would make logical sense to see proportionally large tax increases. As the tax increases have been more affected by the economic crisis and other factors, not much of it can be attributed to the stadium. But then where is the money coming from? It is my belief, and the belief of many others, that other infrastructural and service delivery projects have taken either a dive in finances or priority, so that the stadium may gain said priority.

So not only will many of the people have to wait for far longer periods of time, with regards to service delivery and the like. But, as I alluded to in previous articles, will not gain anything significant out of the new stadium or the FIFA World Cup. This will be difficult for the government to justify, so much so in fact, that I do not believe they will be able to. But what is even harder to justify, is the equally viable (but not as grand) alternative. The alternative to the Moses Mabhida Stadium would be the mass renovations of the ABSA Stadium, which conveniently can be found across the road from the Moses Mabhida Stadium. Granted, the stadium will not be able to accommodate as many people as planned. But by massively renovating and extending it, it may produce a similar result to that of the Moses Mabhida Stadium. Not only would it be a far cheaper project, and in so doing, vastly reduce the priority dropping of other projects; but would mean less maintenance expenses and a possible profit. Just to reinforce this article’s argument, the predicted cost of the ABSA Stadiums renovations would be R350m; a far cry from R2.5bn, over two billion rand in fact.

Two billion is a huge sum of money, especially when you consider what it could do for the less fortunate. I just hope it is the government that realises and accounts for its error of ways.While the image of South Africa may be important, and hence our holding of the FIFA World Cup, it is the people of this country who should win every single time.