₦airaland Forum

Why on earth is India taking the most lucrative tournament to a crime ridden country for security reason?
Maybe they do know things most of the world don't knows,







http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/7958664.stm

IPL will switch to South Africa

The Indian Premier League will now be hosted by South Africa after the decision was made to move it from India, BBC Sport understands.

Security concerns prompted IPL boss Lalit Modi to seek an alternative host, with South Africa chosen ahead of England, who wanted to stage the event.

Modi and Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola are expected to confirm the switch at 1500 GMT.

The tournament will start on 17 April, with the final staged on 24 May.

Six centres will be used to stage the event, with matches due to be played in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London.

The weather was a factor, but I also understand from talking to various people that the South African government came in in a very strong way

BBC sports editor Mihir Bose
"The South Africans have won this race against England," reported BBC sports editor Mihir Bose. "They have clearly provided the Indians with the sort of guarantees they were after.

"The weather was a factor, but I also understand from talking to various people that the South African government came in in a very strong way. With a lot of spectators expected to move around, issues like visas are also crucial and all of that has played a part."

The decision is a major coup for South Africa, who will enjoy the financial benefits of hosting such a high-profile tournament as well as underline their readiness to host the football World Cup in 2010.

Modi had said he had no choice but to move the event because India's government could not guarantee safety and security resources, with national elections happening at the same time.

England were thought to be the early favourites to stage the tournament in India's stead, but it appears that the country's inclement weather has played a part in it not being chosen.


Modi had earlier told an Indian TV station: "Weather could be a problem. Moreover because of the London Marathon (26 April) there could be a problem finding hotel rooms for some days.

"There's also the Test series between West Indies and England we have to take into account."

There are other factors that render South Africa a more attractive option, including television timings - South Africa is closer to India in terms of time zones - while the cost of holding the tournament is reportedly cheaper in the African nation.

The TV rights issue in South Africa is also more straightforward, with Supersport holding the rights to the IPL as well as international cricket in the country.

That is not the case in England, where Sky hold the broadcast rights to all cricket played in England - but rival Setanta bought the UK rights to the IPL last year and showed the inaugural tournament.

Nelson Mandela stadiam in Port Elizabeth,Eastern cape,this is the land of Xhosa nation

Moses Mabhida in Durban,Kwazulu(Zululand) Natal Province

Yeah it's true,check the Identity document of one of them.

Here it goes!!!

Zulus have done it again

Ever since mobile phone services were introduced in KZN some parents have named their children after some of the terms used by mobile services providers. According to Home Affairs stats some of the children born from 1993 when mobile services were introduced in the province (and the rest of SA) have the following names:

1. Network Madondo
2. Subscriber Zulu
3. Nokia Khumalo
4. Siemens Mdlalose
5. Motorola Buthelezi
6. Dial Magubane
7. Vodacom Mkhize
8. Call Later Ndlovu
9. Voicemail Ngobese
10 Simcard Makhathini
11 Scratchcard Mlaba
12 Talktime Luthuli
13 Send Ndebele
14 Paging Nyawose
15 Cellphone Mpungose
16 Message Gumede
17 SMS Mabaso
18 Phonebook Dlamini
19 Ringtone Khoza
20 MTN Shezi
21 Prepaid Zwane
22 Pay as you go Mfeka
23 Please Call Me Cetshwayo
24 Contract Mabaso
25 Charger Ngobese
26 Hands Free Tshabalala
27 Unavailable Masondo
28 Switchoff Mabuza
29 Sim-Rejected Hlongwane
30 Air-time Zwelithini
31 Internet Mthethwa
32 Server Mkhize
-----------hahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!haaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

I like Madagascar te movie better

I like to move it move it!

I like to move it move it!

We like to, ?

World Cup final venue '65% done'
17 March 2009
By:
Simangaliso Zwane

Johannesburg – The venue for the opening and closing matches of the 2010 Fifa World Cup in Johannesburg is now 65 percent complete, Johannesburg’s 2010 World Cup office says.

Joburg’s 2010 co-ordinator Sibongile Mazibuko said the Soccer City stadium will be ready in time for the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

“We are proud of the fact that the last roof steel went up onto the Soccer City Stadium. A calabash pot which is a significant African design of our country is actually 65 percent done,” Mazibuko said.

The R1.5-billion 94 700-seater stadium is due to be completed in July 2009. Soccer City will host the opening ceremony, opening match, four first-round matches, one second-round match, one quarter final and the final during the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

The stadium will also boast parking space for some 15 000 vehicles once completed.

Located in Johannesburg’s southwest and only a stone’s throw from one of the country’s football crazy townships, Soweto, Soccer City Stadium will host the opening ceremony, and opening and final matches of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

The original stadium had a capacity of 80 000 people; upgrades involve extending the upper tier around the stadium to increase the capacity to 94 700; adding 99 more suites to bring the present number to 184; constructing an encircling roof; adding new change room facilities; and installing new floodlighting.

The area around Soccer City Stadium is also undergoing an upgrade. Running north of the stadium is the Soweto Highway which has been widened and forms part of the City’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.

More than R120-million is being pumped into the Nasrec Precinct, in which the stadium falls. Here the upgraded Expo Centre will house the International Broadcast Centre (IBC), the nerve centre for all television operations and the world's news agencies for the six week of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

As part of the upgrades, the precinct will have a fully functional transport hub including a railway station. The rail system will serve future industrial, commercial and residential developments planned for the area after the soccer tournament.

Besides the rail station, the transport hub will have taxi, bus and rail drop off and pick up points. The total public transport capacity of the hub is projected to be 23 280 an hour

The stadium will have sits in zebra stripe pattern,And it is due for conpletion in November.

This is how it should look like when completed

Nigeria will be preparing for the world cup in this city,which is less than 100 km from mozambique and also the same distance to Swaziland.

Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit,this stadium is designed to look like a girraffe,it is 15 kilometer from the biggest nature reserve in the world,infact it is builded in Kruger National Park.Has a capacity of 45 000,will host only group matches.

More on Mother city

Picture of Cape Town

This is Atlone Stadium in Cape Town home of Cape Town Santos and Ajax Cape Town FC,with a capacity of 40 000 ,will be use for training during the world cup

After 11 years on the Gautrain payroll, its jovial project head, Jack van der Merwe, can quote figures from the rapid rail link project in quickfire succession, and without the benefit of notes.

He’ll tell you that the Gautrain team is working on 53 sites simultaneously, that it will take 38 minutes to travel between Johannesburg and Tshwane once the system is operational, and that Electrostar Gautrain will be able to run at 160 km/h.

The Gautrain Management Agency CEO, who travelled to Germany in 1997 with the then Gauteng Premier Tokyo Sexwale to “buy a train”, as the politician quipped, indeed has all the numbers at the tips of his fingers – but explains that it doesn’t mean that they are all set in stone.

Once a distant target, 2010 has become a very impatient next year.

The Midrand–Sandton–OR Tambo International Airport link of the Gautrain is to be completed in 2010, and the second phase of the project, inclusive of the links between Sandton and Johannesburg’s Park station, and Midrand to Hatfield, in Tshwane, is to be completed by April 2011.

“We’re working on a lot of sites. Some of these are ahead of schedule, and some are behind. In general, we’re still within the timeframe we have set ourselves,” says Van der Merwe.

He notes that all the big civil works on the 15 km of tunnels, as well as on the viaducts, should be completed by the middle of this year. Building work on the ten stations is set to continue.

“We’ll break down the precast yard in the middle of the year, replacing it with the bus depot and maintenance yard,” notes Van der Merwe.

“This year we’ll be moving away from the heavy civil works, into the electrical and mechanical work.”

The Gautrain will use 125 buses to feed commuters to and from the train stations.

The orders for these buses – all expected to be produced locally – will be placed before March this year.

Tracklaying on the 80-km route is also set to continue this year.

“We need to finish the 7-km test track first, running from the train depot up to Midrand station, so we can do dynamic testing on all of the trains.”

The Gautrain rolling stock of 96 rail cars is based on the Electrostar series.

The first 16 rail cars, plus the body shells for the complete fleet, are being manu- factured at the Bombardier plant in Derby, in the UK.

These body shells and some of the major components for the remaining 80 rail cars are then shipped to Murray & Roberts subsidiary Union Carriage & Wagon, in Nigel, on the far East Rand, for final assembly.

The first train has already arrived from Derby, and is undergoing testing at the depot.

Not a World Cup Project, But . . .

The question now is, with all of this still in the pipeline, will the Gautrain be completed in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup?

The R25-billion rapid rail link has never been a World Cup project, emphasises Van der Merwe.

The project was announced in 2000, and the World Cup was awarded only in 2004. In other words, it preceded the sports event by a number of years.

However, despite this, pressure has been mounting from various quarters in South Africa for the first phase of the rapid rail link to be completed in time to ferry soccer fans from the airport to Sandton. Testament to this are the many public declarations by Gauteng provincial government officials that the project will be finished in May 2010, instead of the contracted end of June 2010.

However, the World Cup kicks off on June 9.

“Look, the thing is we can make it,” says Van der Merwe, “but we’ll have to sit down by the middle of this year with Bombela and look at what must be accelerated, and what this involves.

“Yes, it would have a cost implication, but there is no number available yet.

“We’ll see whether it’s worthwhile to spend X amount of money to finish in time for the soccer World Cup. If the cost is too high, government will have to go to a plan B, which may include bus transport from the airport to Sandton.”

Van der Merwe says the Gautrain still carries the price tag of R25-billion, “plus a little bit for escalation”.

“Inflation is running much higher than the 3% to 6% band we predicted – but, no, it’s not billions more, as has been reported in the newspapers.”

Van der Merwe notes that the rapid rail link is a 100-year project, and that the aim is to have it operating for this period, rather than chasing a ribbon-cutting event for May 2010.

“We can’t compromise on safety, or standards, or anything like that.”

That said, Van der Merwe is optimistic that the actual construction of the airport link will be concluded by the end of this year – “maybe one or two months into next year”.

“So, the train will be running up and down the track by then.

“Maybe the train will even be able to run up to Tshwane by the middle of next year.”

However, warns Van der Merwe, having the train running does not mean the system has been completed.

There are still many outstanding operational issues, such as ticketing, safety, security, signalling, communications, and electrical and mechanical work to be wrapped up.

The Gautrain is a public–private partner- ship between the Gauteng provincial government and Bombela, a consortium consisting of international partners Bombardier and Bouygues Travaux Publics, and local stakeholders Murray & Roberts, black economic-empowerment company Strategic Partners Group and the J&J Group, as well as Absa Bank.

Bombela has been contracted to build the Gautrain over a five-year period, and to then operate the system under a 15-year concession agreement.

R12, R20, R80 a Ticket?


There is a lot to be said of the carrot-and-stick approach when it comes to public transport, explains Van der Merwe.

The carrot is that the Gautrain will offer a luxury option, as well as speed and safety.

“This makes it a viable option to travel between home and work.”

The stick part is the congestion on Gauteng’s roads.

“You don’t have to ask anyone who travels between Tshwane and Johannesburg about the delays they experience every day – nobody can calculate the duration of a trip anymore,” says Van der Merwe. “However, you can count on the fact that the Gautrain will take 38 minutes.”

However, there is another potentially bigger knopkierie on the table, he notes.

“The Gauteng freeways will be tolled from 2010. I don’t think the public has internalised this yet.

“Yes, there will be extra capacity on the highways, but all these new lanes will be high-occupancy vehicle lanes. Single car users will not be allowed to use them.”

Van der Merwe says the 50c to 60c toll payable for each kilometre from October next year means toll charges between Johannesburg and Tshwane for a daily commuter will run at around R1 000 a month.

“That is going to make an impact on the perceived cost of motoring.”

The Gauteng government has provided Bombela with a pricing envelop noting that Gautrain ticket prices should be more expensive than existing public transport – “which is subsidised, so it won’t be difficult” – but lower than the perceived cost of motoring, explains Van der Merwe.

Toll fees increase the perceived cost of motoring substantially, he adds.

A Gautrain pricing regime drawn up a few years ago determined that it would cost R12 to travel between Sandton and Rhodesfield stations, around R20 between Johannesburg and Tshwane, and R80 between OR Tambo International Airport and Sandton stations.

“There will be monthly, six-monthly and yearly loyalty cards, so we’re talking roughly R800 a month. I, myself, live in Pretoria and commute to Johannesburg every day, and it costs me R2 500 a month on diesel. Taking the Gautrain would be a bargain for me. It will be a solid economic proposition.”

The reason the airport link will be more expensive is that it will be a nonstop service, offering more spacious carriages to accommodate luggage.

“R80 is still cheap. The Heathrow (airport) express in London costs R225.

“If you land at OR Tambo today, and you take the taxi or the bus to Sandton, depending on the time of day, it can cost between R300 and R400,” says Van der Merwe.

However, the current Gautrain price regime was determined when the fuel price was still R4/ℓ, and not the current, roughly, R7/ℓ.

Will it really be this low when the Gautrain starts operating next year?

“We still have to finalise the prices – but we think it will remain around the order of R800 a month if you’re a regular user.”

Parking and Gautrain bus fares will be included in the pricing.

Van der Merwe adds that several Sandton companies have already requested buying tickets in bulk for their employees as part of an incentive scheme.

10 Stations, or 14?

The current Gautrain system includes ten stations: Hatfield, Pretoria, Centurion, Midrand, Marlboro, Rosebank, Sandton, Johannesburg, Rhodesfield and OR Tambo International Airport.

However, it is possible to add stations to this system, says Van der Merwe.

“What we’ve done is to design four internal stations in addition to the current system, to be built as and when required.

“We have also designed the end stations in such a manner that the system can be extended.”

Van der Merwe says there is a 15-year concession period during which Bombela and the Gauteng government can go out and design new stations, should they wish to.

“Or, when we enter a new concession period, we can again go out on a ‘design, build and operate” tender.”

The four internal stations are centred on big property developments, says Van der Merwe. They are in Modderfontein, Allandale, in Centurion near the South African Mint, and beyond Hatfield, near the N4/N1 crossing.

“We can consider a station wherever there are 20 000 to 30 000 housing units being built,” says Van der Merwe.

40 000 People Every Hour

Will there be an adequate number of people taking the train to make it an economically viable project?

Current passenger projections are that there will be 165 000 passenger trips a day, says Van der Merwe. However, this study was also done prior to the plan to toll the Gauteng freeways, and new results are expected soon.

“Gauteng is a small province. It covers only 1,46% of the country’s land area, yet generates close to 40% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), and 10% of Africa’s GDP,” says Van der Merwe.

“As Gauteng keeps on growing, there will always be more demand to move people, goods and services.

“You’re just buying time by improving transport systems. We’ll always be asking for more capacity.”

The Gautrain will make use of 24 four-car train sets.

Each four-car train set will be able to carry between 400 and 500 passengers.

“But, should it become necessary, we can easily increase the capacity,” says Van der Merwe.

“The beauty of a heavy-rail system is that we can put more trains on the already existing track – there is no need to widen it to add capacity, as is the case with roads.”

During peak times, he notes, it is possible to link two or three trains, increasing capacity to 800 to 1 500 people a train. Then, in theory, it is possible to run a train every two-and-a-half minutes, which means 25 trains an hour.

“This means we would be able to carry 37 000 to 40 000 passengers [in each] direction every hour,” says Van der Merwe.

The 24 train sets will require around a hundred train drivers.

Does this mean Metrorail and Transnet may lose some of their drivers?

“It’s an open market. We’ll see who applies,” says Van der Merwe. “However, it is not our intention to steal drivers, but rather to grow the pool of drivers.”

All drivers will be trained on a train simulator.

51 SA Engineers

Bombela opened an office in London to source international engineering skills for the project.

“They brought back 51 South Arican engineers who had worked abroad, of whom 17 were black,” says Van der Merwe.

“It shows you, if you give an engineer a challenge, something he feels proud to do, he’ll come back.”

Van der Merwe says his hope is that the skills base generated by the Gautrain will move on to South Africa’s other large infrastructure projects, such as Eskom’s new-build power stations.

Van der Merwe is a civil engineer by training. Even though he can trace back his involvement in the Gautrain project to 1997, he was only allocated to the project on a full-time basis for the last nine years.

“If all goes well, I’ll spend another five years on the project.

“So, it will end up at about a third of my professional life.”

Despite all the years spent on one project, Van der Merwe still describes it as “magic”, a word he uses often whenever talking about the Gautrain.

Standing in front of the actual Gautrain at the Midrand depot, he says he still “has to pinch himself to make sure it’s real – that it is really, finally, happening”.
__________________

KB1:
South Africans have some serious problems. First many were raping Albinos thinking that it'll give them special powers, and then they were raping kids in thinking that it was a cure for aids, and now this mess. Good lord.

Are you sure it was in South Africa?

I know about babies,but Albino's rapes in South Africa is new.

I must admit that we have a big percentage of pysycologically messed up people in the world,we need serious prayers.

Loftus in Pretoria

aus123:
@RSA

Thanks 4 ur update,

You re always appreciated,

You're welcome,I think that most of you will have believed anything negative it's out there if you didn't see this pictures.And it's not only the stadia,it is the road,hospital,transport,(taxi,bus and rail),airports and many other developments that are going through extreme make over.So I am glad I could play a small part in updating you on latest developments on world cup.

The following pics are from Cape Town,it would host on of the semifianl matches

I say those criminals need to be hunted down and locked inprison forever.I personaly don't believe in homosexuality but in South Africa it's legal for them to marry each other and I respect laws of my country.

Cape Town