South African construction group Aveng on Wednesday officially handed over the fully completed Soccer City Stadium to the Mayor of Johannesburg.

Commenting ahead of the official handover ceremony, Aveng CEO Roger Jardine said: "This is an incredibly exciting moment for The Aveng Group, as we present a piece of African pride to the Mayor of Johannesburg.

"We are ready for the World Cup and cannot wait for the games to begin so that we can showcase African ingenuity in design and our expertise in construction and engineering to the rest of the world. I have no doubt that we will host a world class event"

The iconic stadium took almost 10 million hours to construct and boasts more than 1m "disabling injury free man hours" - a world class achievement that epitomises Aveng and its partners' unrelenting focus on safety.

"Like an African calabash that securely stores food and drink, this calabash-inspired stadium will securely hold almost 90,000 fans who will witness the opening game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup," added Jardine.

The stadium was completed ahead of schedule and will host both the opening and final matches of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Bafana Bafana will open the games against Mexico on 11 June. With 87,000 seats, and numerous paraplegic seats, it is not only the largest in Africa but also one of the biggest all seated stadium ever built for any football world cup event.

Furthermore, the architects have ensured that not a single spectator is more than around 105 metres from the soccer pitch.

There are a total of 193 suites and roughly 2,700 seats dedicated solely to media. 860 parking bays and 77 concession kiosks are included within the grounds.

Particularly marked black seats form lines pointing in the direction of the other stadia in South Africa where World Cup matches will be played, whilst one line points to Berlin's Olympiastadion where the final match of the 2006 FIFA World Cup was played.

These lines are continued down the fa ade, in the passages and ramps and on the paving outside.

Building the stadium required 90,000m of concrete, roughly 12,000 tons of reinforcement steel, 9 million bricks and 13,000 tons of structural steel.

The structure is fitted with a double layer fabric roof while the calabash-inspired design of the fa ade required 32,400 fibre cement panels.