The High Court action by the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association (CEPA) against the construction of the 2010 stadium at Green Point has been postponed indefinitely, due to the complexities of the case.

It was initially set down for 13 August 2007, but the legal teams representing the various parties and the Judge President agreed that date would not be feasible, given the amount of work that had to be done before then.

Both the City and province expressed their disappointment at the postponement, but stressed that work on the stadium will continue on schedule. According to Mayor Helen Zille, “we cannot afford any delay”.

She said that that while the City of Cape Town has “extremely tight deadlines” to be ready in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the City will proceed with the court case in a thorough manner. “We are confident that we have answered CEPA’s challenges substantively,” she said.

Mike Marsden, Executive Director for Service Delivery Integration and responsible for 2010 said: We are disappointed that the matter could not be heard as scheduled. Because of the scale and complexity of the stadium and the issues that are being contested, there is, however, a need for adequate legal preparation by all parties and the court.”

He added that construction of the stadium will proceed to programme because of pressing time constraints.

The case has been postponed to an unspecified date, but the legal teams representing the City, province, FIFA 2010 World Cup Local Organising Committee and CEPA met with the Judge President and were told to agree to a time frame. 

At present, there are more than 35 lever-arch files of affidavits and other documents which are being studied.