By Sydney Masinga

Nelspruit - Clean-up operations began on Tuesday after a heavy storm toppled a tower crane and caused additional damage at the construction site of the R1 billion 2010 soccer stadium in Nelspruit.

The storm swept through Mpumalanga’s capital city between 3pm and 4pm on Sunday, uprooting trees and damaging buildings, houses and vehicles.

“A tower crane collapsed inside the stadium bowl during the storm, but luckily the head of the crane landed outside the stadium, missing the VIP section,” said host city spokesperson Ronny Moyo on Tuesday.

He said the damage to the stadium was minor and would take between one to two months to repair, without affecting the deadline for the stadium’s completion.