New bid to halt Cape Town stadium construction

The city\'s 2010 spokesperson, Pieter Cronje, confirmed yesterday that it had been served with papers by a civic group seeking to halt the R2.9bn project. ‘Our position is that we will defend it (the application) and work on site is continuing according to programme.’ He said the city believed the statutory processes it had followed in approving the stadium were correct. The latest action was launched yesterday by the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association, which said its lawyers had filed an urgent application for an interdict in the Cape High Court. Association spokesperson Kendal Jarvis said the application included a 150-page founding affidavit. He did not know when the matter would be heard. The association is asking the court to set aside a series of decisions by city and provincial authorities, claiming they ‘rode roughshod’ over the principles of public participation in order to satisfy an arbitrary Fifa deadline. Full report on the Mail & Guardian Online site