As you can see from the picture, the World Cup 2010 stadium
in Nelspruit, South Africa isn't quite finished. FIFA could try and stage
a World Cup game there, but I doubt it would be particularly successful.
And the Nelspruit stadium isn't getting any closer to being finished as
construction workers are back on strike. A recent strike was temporarily
suspended while management and unions entered talks, but since no agreement
has been reached workers have downed tools again until their demands for
bonuses and travel allowances are met. Just to make things extra embarrassing,
Confederation of African Football president Issa Haiyatou had been scheduled
to visit Nelspruit to check on progress, but that was obviously canceled
as there hasn't been any progress to check on recently.
I confess to a lack of knowledge of South African labour laws, but surely
these guys are on strike for a reason? Workers don't just stop working
and risk their jobs for nothing. Seems that the companies building the
stadiums are looking to save money, but by treating the construction workers
badly enough for production to stop they're endangering the entire event.
I'm 100% behind the World Cup being held in South Africa. But I'm well
aware that not everyone is so enthusiastic and problems like this only
give the doubters more ammunition.
FIFA still aren't too worried, but eventually no stadiums will mean no
World Cup in South Africa. So it would be to everyone's benefit if the
construction companies treated the workers fairly, negotiated an acceptable
agreement and let everyone get on with the important business of staging
a World Cup.
,
December 3rd, 2007
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