THE STADIUMS:
Five of South Africa’s football stadiums will undergo major renovations for 2010: Soccer City and Ellis Park in Johannesburg, Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria, the Royal Bafokeng stadium in Mafikeng in North West province, and Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein in the Free State.

New stadiums will be built at Mbombela in Mpumalanga and in the Nelson Mandela Metro (encompassing Port Elizabeth) in the Eastern Cape. Peter Mokaba stadium in Polokwane in Limpopo will be rebuilt, as will King Senzangakhona Stadium in Durban and Cape Town’s Green Point stadium. Kings Park and Green Point stadium will become completely new multi-sport facilities, Green Point complete with a retractable dome to protect fans and players from the Cape’s unpredictable winter weather.

Port Elizabeth (Xhosa: Ibhayi; colloquial Afrikaans: Die Baai) or known as Madiba Bay is a city in South Africa, situated in the Eastern Cape Province at 33°57′29″S, 25°36′00″E, 770km east of Cape Town. The city, often shortened to PE and nicknamed “The Friendly City” or “The Windy City”, stretches for 16km along Algoa Bay, and is one of the major seaports in South Africa.

Port Elizabeth was founded as a town in 1820 to house British settlers as a way of strengthening the border region between the Cape Colony and the warlike Xhosa tribe. It now forms part of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality which has a population of over 1 million. The city is in a friendship partnership with the Swedish City of Gothenburg and is a sister city to the American cities of Jacksonville, Florida and Palm Desert, California.

The city has a wealth of fine sporting facilities, catering for cricket , rugby union, association football, hockey and many other sports. Its coastal location also makes it a base for many watersports.

Port Elizabeth is the location of the St George’s Park cricket ground, which holds test cricket matches. St George’s Park is also the oldest cricket ground in South Africa. Its official name is now Sahara Oval St George’s.

The headquarters of the controversial Southern Spears rugby franchise are in Port Elizabeth. The long-standing Eastern Province Rugby Union, now usually known as the Mighty Elephants , has been based in the city’s Boet Erasmus Stadium and would form the basis of the Spears franchise together with East London’s Border Bulldogs

• Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality
• 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Host City
• Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (Port Elizabeth) on South African Cities Network
• Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism – Accommodation and Attractions list from the official local tourism body
• Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
• Port Elizabeth on MeetSOUTHAFRICA.NET – Photos of Port Elizabeth
• MyPE – Web-based community for the Port Elizabeth area
• Port Elizabeth article in the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Sunday Times article on creation of Nelson Mandela Metropole…
• Ubuntu Education Fund – an NGO working with orphans and vulnerable children in Port Elizabeth.
• Port Elizabeth – Information Portal

Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country’s three capital cities, serving as the executive (administrative) and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.

Pretoria is contained in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality as one of several constituent former administrations (among which also Centurion and Soshanguve), and therefore sometimes incorrectly referred to as Tshwane — this contentious issue is still being decided.

One of the most popular sports in Pretoria is rugby union. Loftus Versfeld is home to the Blue Bulls who compete in the domestic Currie Cup, the Bulls who compete in the international Super 14 competition (Winners of the Super 14 in 2007) and to soccer side Mamelodi Sundowns . Pretoria also hosted matches during the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Loftus Versfeld will be used for matches of the 2010 Soccer World Cup.There are two soccer teams in the city campaigning in the Premier Soccer League. They are Sundowns and Supersport United. Sundowns are the reigning PSL Champions. Cricket is also popular.