The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Molefi Sefularo today confirmed his department’s preparedness for the FIFA Confederations Cup due to start this Sunday in Johannesburg.
“It’s all systems go. We are happy with the health preparedness plan in as far as the FIFA Confederations Cup is concerned. Our emergency medical services are ready. Let the games begin”, said Sefularo in assuring the local fans, players and throngs of international spectators and FIFA officials expected to descend into South Africa to watch the two-week soccer festival.
The Department of Health together with health authorities in hosting provinces and the South African Local Organising Committee (SALOC) have over the past months been involved in various projects aimed at ensuring that the country is ready from the health point of view to host the Confederations Cup and the FIFA 2010 World Cup in 12 months.
“Health is a very important element for such events to be a success. We made particular guarantees to FIFA in as far as this area is concerned. It is for the footballers, officials and spectators. All of these people need to have a sense of how well our emergency medical services and the health care system as a whole are able to provide them with health care in case of need. As the first whistle is about to go off this Sunday, we want to say with no element of doubt that we are ready. Let the games begin,” said Sefularo.
The Department of Health’s preparedness plan is based on the following key areas: communicable and non-communicable diseases, food control, emergency medical services and port health.
In conclusion, the Deputy Health Minister has made an appeal to spectators to make their way to the stadiums on time. “Sometimes problems such as incidents of stampede occur because of fans coming to the venues very late. Suddenly there is a lot of pushing that leads to injuries. We want to appeal to fans to make their way to the stadiums quite early so that the chances of any unfortunate incident are minimised. Our experience in hosting this upcoming event (Confederations Cup) will go a long way in determining how well we host the big one next year, the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament,” concluded Sefularo.
For more information contact:
Fidel Hadebe
Tel: 012 312 0663
Cell: 079 517 3333
Issued by: Department of Health
11 June 2009
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