As the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality rushes against time to finalise the preliminaries for the construction of its 2010 soccer World Cup stadium, another R760-million multi-purpose stadium project was launched in the city yesterday.

The 60000-seater multipurpose Ebenezer Park Super Stadium will be built in Algoa Park by the church-based Ebenezer Centre Trust. There are also several black economic empowerment partners involved in the project.

Speaking at the launch yesterday Lulu Johnson, one of the black economic empowerment partners and also a member of parliament, emphasised that the project was not in competition with the municipality’s stadium to be built at North End Lake.

Johnson said the project was first mooted when it was not known that the municipality would build its own stadium for the 2010 soccer World Cup. He said the idea started as far back as 1996.

“The dream started long before it became public knowledge that South Africa would host the 2010 soccer World Cup.

“The Ebenezer Park Super Stadium is planned with the prosperity of the local communities in mind, and answers the call by our President (Thabo Mbeki) to involve local communities in broad-based entrepreneurial opportunities,” he said.

About 6 000 jobs will be created in the construction phase and a further 4 000 employment opportunities thereafter.

Ernest Hewitt, of Innovative Management Centre, a management company appointed to run the complex, said the vision of the Ebenezer Park Super Stadium is to uplift the community and eliminate poverty and unemployment.

“The goal is to improve the gross national income of the community of the Nelson Mandela Bay.”

Hewitt is the local chief operations officer of textile company Sander International, the first tenant of the Coega industrial development zone.

Hewitt, however, said Sander was not linked to the stadium project and that he was involved in his personal capacity.

The stadium will have a closed, retractable roof. The complex will have a 32 000 square metre shopping mall, a 2 500 square metre gym area, a four-star 250-room “utter luxury” hotel, a parking area for buses and 15 000 cars, a swimming pool, a hospital, a sports rehabilitation centre, a sports school of excellence, indoor hockey, cricket, soccer and other sporting codes.

“The Ebenezer Park Stadium answers the call for creativity as well as to enhance the scope for bigger tourism opportunities. It gives the sportsmen and women hope and security,” said Pastor Neville Goldman.

To give ownership of the complex to the people of Nelson Mandela Bay, Ebenezer Centre Trust intends selling millions of shares at R1 000 per share to residents.

Hewitt said they were now in the process of discussions with two banks with a view of assisting those who could not afford to buy the shares to access loans which would be repaid at favourable terms and over a long period.

“One way of doing this is to utilise the Mzantsi Account, which now makes those who were previously unbankable, bankable. They will access loans to purchase the shares and they will feel part of the project,” said Johnson.

“This is a classical Vuk’uzenzele project,” he said, referring to the popular government slogan which means “rise up and act” in Nguni languages and emphasises self-empowerment.

The developers were confident the stadium would be sustainable and that the city could support two big stadiums.