Stadium ‘Removed’ From MBDA Control

You know that feeling you get in your gut of impending doom? That one that festers in the pit of your stomach and you cannot shake it?

Well, ever since the MBDA Legacy Award dinner (which featured former Executive Mayors Wayile and Faku – who spoke about “On How to Fix Nelson Mandela Bay“) at which the stadium came in for much praise AND where the current Mayor – Lobishe was missing in action I have had this impending feeling of ‘something is up!’

And that something happened one week before the Springboks v Italy test match on this Saturday 12 July 2025.

The Herald reported that Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Babalwa Lobishe has terminated the mandate of the metro’s development agency to manage the city’s world-class stadium, just one week before the Springboks Test match this weekend.

Now one could be churlish and just say that the reason is probably two-fold:

1. Now that the stadium is expected to pull in a lot of money the gravy train slops just got better and
2. Executive Mayor Lobishe is just a tad pissed off about the Legacy Awards dinner and what was said there.

But, to immediate concerns. With only a few days to go to the big test we are already reading reports of contract employee accreditation to the stadium not yet completed, orders for essential services (asked for weeks ago) not being actioned, service level agreements on a month to month – this list goes on.

I posed this question this morning; “Have all the order numbers for all the services and products needed for the game been issued already? If not, then who will issue (honour) them?” And, do we have enough time before the game?

The MBDA answered saying that they; “…are taking advice and cannot say at this time.”

We last held an international match in 2018 and God forbid that we fail on Saturday.

If we do fail then we will have Mayor Lobishe to ‘thank’!