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The Mbombela Stadium is a football and Rugby union all-seater stadium in Mbombela in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. It was one of 10 venues for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and one of 5 newly constructed stadiums for the tournament. It is the home ground to TS Galaxy (South African Premiership) and the Pumas. It is an all-seater stadium, with 43,500 seats, almost all under roof.
It is located 6 kilometres west of Mbombela, the capital of the Mpumalanga province and is the largest venue in the province. The R1,050-million facility was ready for use well ahead of the June 2010 World Cup kickoff and was funded entirely through central government taxpayer funding, requiring no financing by the city.
The structure is founded on 1,500 Deep foundation on a 10m structural grid. Each roof support (in the shape of a giraffe) sits on 18 piles on the 30m major structural bay. The 10m span seating beams are prestressed and most of the 3,170 units were pre-cast on site.
The project was subjected to numerous wildcat strikes. With the 5th and final strike, all main contract were dismissed. All subsequent work was performed by .
During a freak storm in January 2009, a tower crane blew over and cut through the partially completed roof. The site was unoccupied at the time and there were no injuries. The construction required a total of 5.5 million man-hours to complete.
The site accident history was exceptionally safe with the worst injury being a broken ankle. A record was set of 2.4 million consecutive injury-free hours.
The seating capacity is 43,500. In FIFA WC configuration it seated 40,929 with regular seats lost to the media tribune. The seating is divided into 3 tiers with 21,000 lower tier, 3,500 middle tier and 19,000 on the upper tier. The upper tier is accessed by 8 wide ramps located on the corners. The ramps accommodates small delivery vehicles. The middle tier, which is accessed by elevators, has premium seating with a VIP lounge, restaurant, club lounges and 25 private boxes.
The pitch was the cause of great concern and some ridicule 5 months before the World Cup, but its perfect performance in its first real test on 16 May 2010 silenced the critics.
The selection of rye grass was a directive from FIFA specifically for the World Cup. It is not an ideal grass type for the very hot and humid summer conditions common in Mbombela. In January 2013 an unfortunate and unusual long spell of unbroken rainy and weather caused a grass fungus which killed off most of the grass in the run-up to the 2013 African Cup of Nations. Concerns were raised over the playing surface with Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor describing it as "sandy" and "a disgrace". He went on to say "At the end of the day we are all African and we have to be honest with ourselves. It's a beautiful stadium but the pitch is not happening".
Subsequent to the pitch failure of AFCON 2013 during summer Cynodon dactylon is grown which provides a robust and dependable surface during the hot climate. The Cynodon dactylon is dormant in winter when the Lolium flourishes.
The structure is a propped cantilever on a 30 m module with the steel towers for the tension rods doubling as symbolic giraffe necks. The floor of the service catwalk is 110mm thick concrete acting as ballast to resist wind uplift.
Lefika Emerging Equity won the design contract for the stadium in April 2006. Lefika was composed of three businessmen. Bobby Motaung, manager of Kaiser Chiefs football club, Herbert Theledi, a businessman with powerful provincial connections, and Chris Grib, a minority shareholder in Lefika and CEO tasked with day-to-day running of the company. Chris Grib left the country in late 2008 under a cloud when it came to light that the SA Revenue Services tax clearance document required to win the design contract was fraudulent. After Jimmy Mohlala was assassinated weeks after he attempted to cancel the design contract, the balance of the construction till completion proceeded with Lefika effectively absent, but still earning their professional fees. No officials were brave enough to continue attempts to cancel the design contract.
Arrests
Despite their wrongdoings being widely reported, Lefika enjoyed political protection by the provincial ANC under the leadership of premier David Mabuza and the Jacob Zuma-faction who reportedly suppressed the powerful evidence against Lefika and blocked legal prosecution against them for three years. On 15 August 2012, all three Lefika directors were arrested for tender fraud related to the stadium's design contract by the Special Investigations Unit, known as the Hawks, an independent national investigations unit. All three were released on bail and returned to court on 15 October 2012. Chris Grib was out of the country when Jimmy Mohlala was murdered and when Lefika forged a document on a Municipal letter head used to apply for a R1 million overdraft from Nedbank so he was expected to testify against his co-directors Motaung and Theledi under a plea deal for a lesser sentence. The case was heard but charges later dropped. In January 2016 the case was re-investigated and the reinstatement of charges was being considered by the National Prosecuting Authority however nothing came of this. By July 2016 the case was struck off the roll due to a lack of evidence among talk of Bobby Motaung intimidating witnesses from testifying. In November 2017 the National Prosecuting Authority announced that the fraud case would no longer be pursued for lack of evidence. The dropping of charges were reportedly due to Zuma-faction members within the National Prosecuting Authority suppressing the evidence.
Municipality placed under Administration
Corruption related to general municipal mismanagement and the construction of the stadium resulted in the provincial government taking over the running of the municipality and construction management. The Municipality was placed under administration in June 2007. 2010 World Cup whistle-blower shot dead When the Mbombela Municipality was reinstated 5 months later, the outspoken new mayor Lassie Chiwayo and council officials reportedly received death threats, warning them to remain silent about the evidence of corruption.
Corruption was reported about other World Cup-related contracts, however the stadium construction itself proceeded without any controversy. Attempted manipulation of stadium construction sub-contracts by Lefika was successfully blocked by principled officials within the Municipality and the Project Manager.
The worst erroneous spending that has come to light was a very expensive sod turning ceremony costing more than R2 million, and a R590,000 invoice for a business plan that was inflated to R2.4 million by Lefika, with payment forced through by the municipal manager Jacob Dladla. It was reported that an expensive car was purchased as a gift for Dladla at the time. He was arrested on related charges in October 2012 and released on bail.
| Mbombela Stadium | Rand 1.05 billion (USD $ 150 million) | 94% |
| Peter Mokaba Stadium | Rand 1.24 billion (USD $ 165 million) | 28% |
| Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium | Rand 2.1 billion (USD $ 280 million) | 69% |
| FNB Stadium | Rand 3.3 billion (USD $ 440 million) | 66% |
| Moses Mabihda Stadium | Rand 3.4 billion (USD $ 450 million) | 90% |
| Cape Town Stadium | Rand 4.4 billion (USD $ 580 million) | 94% |
| 32,664 |
| 38,229 |
| 37,836 |
| 34,763 |
| 15,500 |
| 13,500 |
| 25,000 |
| 35,000 |
| 8,000 |
| 7,500 |
| 27,000 |
| 30,000 |
The stadium held its first rugby match on 27 August 2010. The Pumas hosted the Blue Bulls in a 2010 Currie Cup match. Pumas won 22–21, trailing 10–11 at half time.
The Pumas made use of the stadium again, when they hosted Western Province on 17 September 2010. Western Province won the match 62–10.
The country's national team, popularly known as the Springboks, played their first match at the stadium against Scotland on 15 June 2013. This match was the second half of a doubleheader, with the curtain-raiser being a matchup between Samoa and Italy. The two composed the second round of a one-off four-team tournament that served partly as a warm-up for the Boks' 2013 Rugby Championship campaign.
South Africa hosted at the stadium on 21 June 2014 in the second test of Wales' 2014 South African tour. The Springboks won the match 31–30.
The Springboks played Argentina at the stadium on 20 August 2016. The Springboks won 30–23.
The first time the All Blacks would play against the Boks at Mbombela Stadium was scheduled for 26 September 2020 but the game was cancelled due the COVID-19 pandemic. The rescheduled match was held on 6 August 2022, with South Africa winning 26–10.
The Springboks played Argentina again on 28th September 2024 to a sold out Mbombela Stadium (crowd of 43 578 people). The Springoks won 48-7
On 14 November 2010, the stadium hosted its first Premiership match. Wits moved their match against Mamelodi Sundowns to the stadium.
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