2010 , A bid South Africa made and won , but did they know how much of money would be wasted ? Much has changed since the bid was submitted – more new and bigger stadiums are being developed and more is being spend on transport infrastructure. The bigger stadia mean there will be more tickets for sale and more tickets mean more foreign tourists can come to watch the event.
We have also seen what happened in Germany, and while the summer in Germany, in the middle of Europe is not the same as winter in South Africa at the Southern tip of a continent, some ways in which the event is developing will influence what happens here. Germany saw many tens of thousand foreign non-ticket holder visitors coming to fan fests and we don’t know how much this phenomina might replicate here, especially with African visitors.
Much is therefore still not certain with respect to some aspects of spending related to the event, but we have done some simple updates of ticket sales and infrastructure. In total from 2006 to 2010 the gross contribution to GDP will be R51.1 billion, and this includes direct expenditure of R30.4 billion plus the multiplier effect of the total indirect impact on the rest of the South African economy.
Of this gross contribution, most, R29,3 billion is from construction and related activity. We have included only national government spend and therefore this total is understated as there is also significant provincial and city spending happening. However, much of the national, provincial and city spend would be planned spending which has been accelerated to happen before the event. Nevertheless there is no doubt that this huge infrastructure spend has a major impact on our economy and on jobs and businesses in the construction sector. Construction jobs sustained by this spending will be the equivalent of 368 250 annual jobs.
Most of the balance of the event impact will occur in 2010, during the event. Of the...