Despite the municipality’s push to relieve the Mandela Bay Development Agency of its Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium duties, the agency has pulled in R21m in revenue from events and sports fixtures between the start of the 2023/2024 financial year and June.
It also secured a Bafana Bafana vs Zambia game last week.
It will be played at the stadium on Saturday.
An MBDA report, meant to be tabled at the municipal public accounts committee (Mpac) to provide feedback on its audit and annual reports for the 2023/2024 financial year, was delayed yet again last week when the meeting could not convene.
“As of quarter four, the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium closed on a positive note as more than R21m in year-to-date revenue was generated up to June 30 2025,” the report reads.
“For the period under review, the stadium hosted the Sanzaar U20 Rugby Championship between SA, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina.
“We also hosted fixtures of the SA Cup, featuring the Eastern Province Rugby Union versus different opponents and bringing provincial rugby back to the city.”
The report states that the biggest soccer match played during this period was between Chippa United and Kaizer Chiefs.
The top five events accounted for 161,000 spectators through the stadium gates.
The report notes that, at the time of its submission, the MBDA had fewer than 48 hours left as the stadium’s manager under the July 9 court order.
“At the time of reporting on quarter 4, the budget performance of the entity stood at 98% on operating expenditure and 85% on capital expenditure.
“The lower than targeted capital expenditure considers the multipurpose centres that require budget confirmation to enable commissioning.”
The actual operating spending for the MBDA is R108m of the total operating budget, versus 62% expenditure recorded for quarter 3 against a budget of R110m.
The capital expenditure performance is R66m versus the R43m of the prior period ending, or 85% against a budget of R78m.
“The agency attributes the signs of improvement in budget expenditure to the strategic decision to reorganise operations, creating a clear and distinct focus on planning and project preparation, which delivers a pipeline of future projects, while establishing a dedicated team for project implementation, all under the supervision of the operations executive and direct interventions by the CEO Anele Qaba,” the report reads.
Mpac chair Luxolo Namette said he would comment on the report once it was tabled at the next meeting.
The Herald