The announcement was made this week, by Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo, deputy minister of communications Roy Padayachee, Gauteng MEC for sports and recreation Barbara Creecy and Local Organising Committee (LOC) CEO Danny Jordan.
“Every passing day brings us another step closer to that much anticipated first whistle that will start the 2010 FIFA World Cup, right here at Soccer City, in the Nasrec Precinct,” Masondo said.
“Today we are happy to announce that the city is to invest R120 million to upgrade the Nasrec Precinct to support the IBC, which, together with the redevelopment of Soccer City, will provide Joburg with an additional thrust to its long-term plans to revitalise the south of Johannesburg. Included in high-tech facilities that will be constructed at the IBC are satellite teleport and telecommunications infrastructure, which will support 40 gigabytes per second transmission capacity,” he added.
Jordan said: “This is a major milestone on our joint journey towards 2010 and we are confident that the city of Johannesburg will fulfil this big responsibility admirably to upgrade Nasrec and to provide great accommodation and services to the precinct.”
All accredited media personnel who will work at the IBC are expected to be accommodated at the five-star hotel's 500 rooms and 330 luxury apartments to be built at the Nasrec Precinct, which will also comprise a modern railway station, a transport hub (taxis and buses), a pedestrian promenade, shopping centre and several office blocks.
Construction of these facilities will start in a few weeks' time, Nasrec Expo Centre chairperson Andrew Mthembu said.
Johannesburg was chosen to host the IBC ahead of Cape Town and Durban by FIFA and LOC. During the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, Munich hosted the IBC, where 13 400 accredited media staff, including TV and radio commentators, camera crew, members, media assistants and technical staff and other journalists operated around the clock, 24 hours a day for six weeks.
DOC deputy minister Padayachee said that the establishment of the IBC will drive his department to work hard to provide a sound ICT to ensure that the event ran smoothly. He added that despite various challenges the government is serious and has been forging ahead in its bid to organise the best World Cup ever.
According to a socio-economic study conducted by Grant Thornton, the hosting of the IBC by the city of Joburg will culminate to the creation of 3370 jobs and the contribution to the city's GDP will amount to R340.9 million in direct expenditure and R513.7 million in direct, indirect and induced expenditure and R58.3 million in taxes.
Nasrec, scattered across 52 ha of land, is Africa's largest and oldest exhibition centres. The Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), the city's utility company in charge of the Nasrec redevelopment, said that it has been in consultation with various stakeholders, including the RMB Properties and the Department of Public Works, which owns the land, to create a critical residential mass to encourage economic development for the precinct, including the upgrading and widening of feeder roads.
JDA CEO Lael Bethlehem also said that a sustainable thriving precinct will be created with a green buffer zone between the residential and commercial areas, following the rehabilitation of slimes dams.
“Remaining land will be landscaped and used for parking and revenue for stadium,” she added.
