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South Africa is secure for the 2010 Fifa Soccer World CupFor four weeks, starting on 9 June 2010, the eyes of millions of television viewers, thousands of international visitors, and the cream of the world’s sporting media will be focused on the southern tip of Africa for the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup. And South Africa’s safety and security models will be crucial to the successful outcome of this event.
The South African Police Service (SAPS) learned extensively from experiences gained by other security forces in countries that have hosted major sporting events, such as Korea, Japan and Germany.
SAPS members attended the Fifa Soccer World Cup in 2006, and in 2009 visited the Pan American Games in Brazil, the Rugby World Cup in France and deployed the Special Task Force, National Intervention Unit and other experts to the Cricket World Cup in the West Indies to gain more experience.
In the past few months, Andre Pruis, deputy commissioner of Police, co-ordinated a series of joint air-and-ground interception operational exercises to test the state of preparedness of the security forces for the event.
Pruis said the exercises were definitely a success, with major lessons drawn from it such as the importance of an efficient and fast command and control system, and efficient communication between the central operational centre to the various venue operational centres, airports, fire services, and observations posts.
SAPS and the South African National Defence Force conducted joint safety and security training exercises and about 5 000 Southern African Development Community soldiers, sailors and airmen are headed for South Africa to establish a fully operational African Standby Force that would include one integrated multinational brigade per region.
World Cup 2010 organisers are collaborating with Interpol to ensure the tournament is safe from terrorist attacks such as the recent assault on Sri Lankan cricketers in Pakistan. According to a Scores Pro report, Local Organising Committee (LOC) chief executive officer Danny Jordaan said the event will be safe for players and fans.
Interpol has been very helpful with major events in the past and assessments indicated that there is no known major security threat at this stage. “SA is not a terror target, but as many playing countries will be represented, we have various contingency plans in place to counter any real or potential threat,” said Pruis.
The SAPS formulated a specific plan for crowd management and formed a co-operative committee with the United Kingdom to counter hooliganism.
Furthermore, a football stadium safety company from the UK has been employed to train staff, and specialists from Nantwich-based Events Stewarding, Training and Consultancy work with senior staff and South African venue managers to prepare for the giant tournament.
The government has assured the millions of fans coming to South Africa that they will be safe, pointing out: South Africa will be working closely with international intelligent agencies; there will be a strict focus at all border ports and posts of entries; route security will be a priority, specifically those leading from airports into the cities; a standard checklist of safety and security projects were developed and circulated to all host cities; police forces are allocated to each host city, patrolling and focusing on Fifa headquarters, accommodation establishments, the stadiums, fan parks, restaurants and tourist venues; state-of-the-art information and communication military technology, a fleet of nearly 40 helicopters and a deployed force of 41 000 officers will be in force.
The R665-million budget allocated to safety and security for the event is used to procure special surveillance equipment, crowd-control equipment, crime scene trainers, manned aircrafts, helicopters, water cannons, BMWs for highway patrol, modern body armour and 300 mobile cameras.
There will be four mobile command centres at a cost of R6m each, featuring high-tech monitoring equipment, able to receive live footage from airplanes and all cameras.
South Africa’s ability to manage security for the event has been endorsed by Fifa after its inspection visit, saying South African authorities have the know-how and resources to manage security successfully, with SAPS providing an excellent, comprehensive work schedule that would doubtless satisfy every requirement.
South Africa’s track record in managing high-level events speaks for itself. The country successfully hosted, managed and secured a number of major events including the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the African Cup of Nations in 1996, the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in 1998, the All Africa Games in 1999, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002, the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the Women’s World Cup of Golf (2005/8), and the only street race in the A1 GP World Cup of Motorsport (2006).
For the WSSD, South Africa pioneered a security model that has been acknowledged as a new international benchmark and has since been adopted by the United Nations as its model for large events. This in itself proves that South Africa is more than capable of securing the event and is waiting on-guard.
Rizel Delano
