Pretoria - The seating in all ten of the stadia which will host 2010 FIFA World Cup matches is to be finalised by October this year.
At a briefing following an inter-ministerial committee meeting at the Union Buildings on Thursday, Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile said that the stadia should have all seats in place by October so that the FIFA ticketing company would be able to sell tickets attached to seats.
"All ten of them by October 2009, they should have all seats in place so that the ticketing company of FIFA knows which ticket to sell for which seat," said Mr Stofile.
He said in terms of the actual completion and handing over of the stadia to the Departments of Safety and Security and Public Works for certification, the stadia would meet their December 2009 deadline for completion.
He said thousands of people would be able to use the stadium by the deadline.
He had already received confirmation that the stadiums would indeed meet the deadline, while others would be finished even earlier.
Referring to the stadia in the four cities hosting the Confederations Cup in June, he said they were almost finished. "They are 99 percent complete. By and large the fundamentals of what makes a stadium FIFA compliant to host the Confederations Cup, they've all complied with that."
The remaining work includes finishing walkways.
Deputy President Baleka Mbete, who convened the inter-ministerial committee, said that as the date for the events drew closer, government and other stakeholders would be meeting more regularly to ensure that all outstanding issues are wrapped up.
The meeting also had inputs from the host cities themselves as well as the South African Police Services (SAPS) on the state of readiness to host the Confederations Cup.
"We're quite happy that a lot of work has been done," said Ms Mbete.
SAPS Commissioner Andre Pruis said South Africa had hosted 141 events since the democratic elections. Out of those there had only been one incident at the World Conference Against Racism.
"We are striving to have an incident free event," said the commissioner.
Many countries were taking some of South Africa's concepts and implementing them in their respective countries. He said the United Nations had also implemented some South African concepts during its hosting of the Summit on Sustainable development.
