top of the seating bowl with an 8 m gap to provide ventilation in the hot climate and also to provide views to the surrounding hills from the seats. The structure is a propped cantilever on a 30 m module with the steel towers for the tension rods doubling as symbolic giraffe necks. The floor of the service catwalk is 110mm thick concrete acting as ballast to resist wind uplift. Controversies and corruption Allegations of corruption relating to the awarding of construction contracts in the building of the stadium plagued the project. At least three individuals were murdered in connection with the allegations, and another three have died under mysterious circumstances. Assassination The Speaker of the Mbombela Council, Jimmy Mohlala had been a longstanding and vocal critic of corruption in the province. In late 2008 Mohlala began legal steps to cancel the Lefika Emerging Equity design contract for the new stadium based on a fraudulent tax clearance certificate submitted as part their design tender document. He called for a criminal case against soccer boss Bobby Motaung for reportedly forging a Mbombela council letter with a fake signature of former Mbombela municipal manager Sgananda Siboza to obtain an overdraft from a bank. Shortly after taking these steps, in January 2009, Mohlala was brutally assassinated outside his residence in front of his son. Allegations have been made repeatedly that Bobby Motaung and David Mabuza organised the murder of Mohlala. David Mabuza was Premier of the Mpumalanga Province at the time and is now Deputy President of South Africa. For more detailed investigative journalistic accounts around his death read the online articles:. Corruption Cancellation of the Design Contract Lefika Emerging Equity won the design contract for the stadium in April 2006. Lefika was composed of three businessmen. Bobby Motaung, manager of Kaiser Chiefs football club, Herbert Theledi, a businessman with powerful provincial connections, and Chris Grib, a minority shareholder in Lefika and CEO tasked with day-to-day running of the company. Chris Grib left the country in late 2008 under a cloud when it came to light that the SA Revenue Services tax clearance document required to win the design contract was fraudulent. After Jimmy Mohlala was assassinated weeks after he attempted to cancel the design contract, the balance of the construction till completion proceeded with Lefika effectively absent, but still earning their professional fees. No officials were brave enough to continue attempts to