MOSES MABHIDA STADIUM

The claim in media made by Cde. Obed Mlaba that the concept behind Moses
Mabhida Stadium came from Sibusiso Nene, a pupil from Mpumalanga is most
unfortunate, and simply not true.
By way of background in August 2004 Sbu Nene, then a Grade 11 pupil won the
KZN leg of an Eskom Young Science Expo competition and
scooped the gold medal for designing the best 2010 soccer world cup stadium.
We all remember this bright and creative young man and Mayor Mlaba once
brought him to EXCO to show off his design. Later that year, the Mayor
announced that he had arranged a bursary for him, made available by the
African Ridge Development and ARUP South Africa through the Luthuli
Foundation. We presume that Sbu continued his studies and are very sad to hear
of his passing away. He was a rare talent.
Quite separately, under the leadership of the ANC regional committee, chaired
by Bheki Cele, we had begun work in 2003 on redesigning the King Park precinct
to accommodate a future FIFA World Cup and possible Olympics. We used local
and international experts to assist us in analyzing and defining the specifications
for such a stadium and precinct.
As a result of this work, in 2005 we then launched the 2010 and beyond
strategy for the city, which allowed for a comprehensive approach to eventing,
including the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Mato Madlala assisted us greatly in this work
as she had played a major role in the world cup bid process. We analysed
whether or not we could upgrade Kings Park rugby stadium, but eventually
decided that it was more cost effective to build a completely new stadium.
In all of this and the future processes, the ANCs eThekwini region was involved,
including also allowing us to hold a competition to select the best design and
team to produce the new stadium. Instead of following a normal procurement
process, we invited the six best design teams to compete with each other
coming up with the best design and team to ensure we could deliver the 2010
world cup stadium, on time and within budget.
After an intensive and rigourous process in which six different proposals were
evaluated, an evaluation team decided that the best proposal was from the
Ibhola Lethu Consortium (ILC), led by the South African engineering firm BKS,
together with over 31 local professional companies and two international
companies architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) and the structural
engineers Schlaich Bergermann and partners. The evaluation team included city
officials (Lunga Lumula is one of those who is still working in the city) and outside
experts from Kings Park Stadium, Ellis Park Stadium and even an international
Engineering expert.
The ANC regional leadership led by Bheki Cele continued to give active
leadership and support this work, providing political direction ensuring we
maximized local content and employment.
The design of the Moses Mabhida stadium derives inspiration from the South
Africa flag where the central arch, together with compression rings, holds up the
roof. Its other features include its compliance with both the specifications of FIFA
and the IOC, and that it is not a complete bowl, allowing for natural air flow and a

panoramic view of the cityscape from within the stadium. These, and many
other features show that there is simply no similarity between Sbu Nenes model
and that of Moses Mabhida Stadium. In addition, the project leader of Ibhola
Lethu has no knowledge of Sbus involvement. We would love to know who it
was that he actually met with and what he was told?
In all of these processes, the ANCs eThekwini region played the major role. This
also included the naming of the stadium, and whilst some wanted it to be named
after King Senzagakhona, Bheki Cele and John Mchunu stood firm and led the
case for it to be named after Moses Mabhida, which then happened.
The beautiful promenade we have is also something which was discussed first
with the ANC eThekwini regional leadership and was about completing the circle
started in the late 1980s when we marched to Free the Beaches. We began the
process of creating new beach nodes, designed also to accommodate beach
events, and have over time slowly removed all vestiges of the apartheid spatial
form from our central beaches.
It is a pity that the creative talent of Sbu Nene is not today assisting us as we reshape our buildings and cities. But the many more young black professionals
who actually worked on Moses Mabhida stadium or who are now able to study at
Universities which once were only the preserves of whites, gives us great
confidence that our professionals will continue to inspire and show the world
what South Africans can do.
Deputy Minister Bheki Cele, former Chairperson of ANC eThekwini Region
Dr. Michael Sutcliffe, former City Manager eThekwini