Wednesday, 24th January 2007 at 12:23 pm

Going begging

Look carefully at the streets of Cape Town this week - the requests for small change at traffic lights might come from a new source. The 2010 stadium that’s had Green Point residents arming themselves with pitch forks and burning torches, is supposed to get underway in March - except now it’s costing slightly more than was initially budgeting. R1.258-billion, to be precise, which is rather a lot of money.

Where will it come from? Treasury, the hopeful response from Mike Marsden, who cited the need for imported labour and a fluctuating exchange rate as the reason for the increase. The kind of exchange rate we’re used to seeing in Zimbabwe, perhaps… Still, raising a billion rand plus change is the target, and if treasury doesn’t stump up, it’s a cake sale at Helen Zille’s house next Wednesday, and little unexpected competition for Big Issue vendors across the city.