An attempt to stop the partial demolition of the existing stadium at Green Point by the Cape Environmental Protection Association had failed, a City of Cape Town spokesperson told Engineering News Online late on Friday.

In a telephonic interview shortly after the court’s decision, spokesperson Pieter Cronje said that the City had opposed the application as “unreasonably short notice” as the City had been served papers at 11h00 on Friday and expected to appear in court at 15h00.

“The matter has been postponed to Monday,” he said.

Earlier Cronje explained that while the civic group was opposing the construction of the new 68 000-seater stadium, demolition of the existing stadium was already 75% complete.

After demolition, the existing stadium would be used as a construction yard for the new stadium, he explained.

“We are not clear why the group waited until now or who the members are or what their mandate is,” Cronje stated.

He added, however, that demolition on the existing stadium would “continue until the court orders us to stop”.

“It is important to us that stadium construction continues, not only as the venue for the 2010 soccer Word Cup semi final, but also to attract the R10-billion public sector investment and the many billions more in private sector investment linked to the 2010,” he stressed.

In response to the question on a contingency plan, Cronje said that the City had no such plan.

He was, however, adamant that there was no time to build a new stadium in a different location and that none of the existing stadiums could be upgraded to 68000-seater capacity to cater to the world cup event.

“Time is tight, we have no time to loose,” he stressed.

Aside from the demolition objection, Cronje was confident that the new stadium was on schedule for completion by October 2009.