“A Safe and Secure 2010 FIFA World Cup”
Let me first take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude for your attendance in this important summit, which seeks to concretise our plans for a safe and secure 2010 FIFA World Cup. I am proud to say that the Eastern Cape continues to inspire national discourse with regard to 2010 security preparations due to a number of safety and security interventions that we are putting in place as we move forward towards 2010.
Some of you would recall that in 2007, the Department of Safety and Liaison hosted the first provincial 2010 Safety and Security summit in our host city, the Nelson Mandela Bay, which has been used as a blueprint for the whole country to emulate. Today, we are here to ascertain our state of readiness for the prestigious soccer extravaganza in order to ensure that:
* We make this historic African World Cup a crime free event
* We realise various guarantees required by FIFA, which include that the South African government had to strengthen its security measures to guarantee general safety and personal protection, especially at airports, inside and outside hotels, stadiums, training grounds, media centres, and any other official area where accredited persons and spectators are present.
The objectives of this summit are to determine:
* the status of preparations of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and law enforcement agencies safety and security plans
* readiness of the host city
* implementation of safety volunteer programmes at identified public viewing areas in the province
* readiness of our disaster management plans
This summit will feed into the preparations for a Provincial Government summit on 2010 to be held in January, which is expected to deal comprehensively with our overall readiness for the tournament. The South African government has assured the millions of fans, who will be coming to watch the 2010 FIFA World Cup that they will be safe in South Africa and our ability to manage the security for such an event has been endorsed by FIFA. The Confederation Cup which recently took place was a dry run for our security forces to ensure total readiness for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup.
Of course, South Africa’s track record in managing high level events speaks for itself. The country has hosted several global gatherings such as:
* World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002
* Non-Aligned Movement summit in 1998
* Rugby World Cup in 1995
* African Cup of Nations in 1996
* All Africa Games in 1999
* Cricket World Cup in 2003
* Indian Premier League
* Confederation’s Cup
Some of these international events took place in the Eastern Cape, particularly Port Elizabeth. This is an indication that we have a certain amount of experience to measure our performance.
On 7 June 2009 history was made when the Nelson Mandela metropolitan municipality held an open day at the new 2010 stadium to show case to the people of the Eastern Cape our newest asset. Already various events have been held and these events were used as dry runs and have allowed our law enforcement agencies an opportunity to test the readiness.
The events amongst others include:
* the 2009 general elections, which were incident free
* British and Irish Lions tour
* public viewing areas in Matatiele, Makana and Buffalo City during the FIFA Confederations Cup
* National Arts Festival in Grahamstown
* the Vodacom Cup and
* the Premier’s Cup
At all these events our law enforcement agencies worked together in an integrated manner and I can confidently say that we will deliver the best service to our people for a safe and secure 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup.
Since the awarding of the FIFA World Cup to South Africa on 15 May 2004, a lot of work has been done. To ensure a strong relationship with the host city and province an integrated provincial coordinating committee was established. This coordinating committee has established seven work streams of which safety and security is one. The safety and security work stream is chaired and convened by the Department of Safety and Liaison. Other work stream members are:
* The South African Police Service
* South African National Defence Force
* National Intelligence Agency
* Department of Economic Development and Environmental Affairs (DEDEA) (Liquor and Tourism Boards)
* Department of Transport (provincial traffic)
* The provincial Community Police Forum Board
* Security Business Unit of the host city
* Department of Correctional Services
* Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs (disaster management)
* Department of Justice
* Department of Home Affairs
As government, we committed ourselves to ensure that the SAPS in the Eastern Cape achieve its target of reducing serious and violent crime and in particular contact crimes by between seven to 10 percent. The test for policing effectiveness will be to go beyond fighting crime in order to be able to provide safe passage for tourists, travellers and all citizens.
The South African Police Service together with other law enforcement partners is at the final stages of refining their plans and operational strategies for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Dry runs are continuing to take place to test our law enforcement agencies and we are glad to announce that on 14 November 2009 Bafana-Bafana will play Japan. This will once again be an opportunity to test our law enforcement agencies. Continuous joint crime prevention operations will take place in hotspots all over the province.
These operations will not only focus on zero tolerance to crime but together with provincial traffic we will also adopt zero tolerance to substance abuse and speeding. I have established a provincial task team which has been operating successfully since the last festive season. This task team will be strengthened by the South African Police Service and will conduct road blocks, stop and search operations and safety awareness. I have directed that this team will be operational until 2010 and beyond.
These operations will be further intensified during the 16 days of activisms of no violence against women and children and throughout the festive season. So for would be offenders beware. We will be strengthening our police service through the enlistment of 700 entry level constables and massive expenditure in infrastructure improvements and resources which include police vehicles.
Currently we are upgrading our police communication systems. This includes building of new high sites, building and equipping three new 10111 centres namely; Port Elizabeth, Mthatha and East London and the training of SAPS members to use these new equipment centres.
While we are investing in our rail renewal programme, we have identified the need to strengthen our security capacity in that front to prevent violence that is currently being experienced by our people when they use our trains. More railway police officers are being employed and deployed throughout the province, especially in the Nelson Mandela metropolitan municipality and Buffalo City in train stations such as Mount Ruth station in Mdantsane, East London, Swartkops and Port Elizabeth.
We have already embarked on a massive recruitment drive of young men and women as traffic officers through our learnership programme in order to ensure that we provide a safe passage for road users during the tournament. We expect all our law enforcement agencies to know where there are key services, including facilities for health, transport, entertainment and other important areas.
To ensure that our people of the Eastern Cape all enjoy the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup public viewing areas will be established in all district municipalities. Our law enforcement agencies will once again be the lead agency to providing safety and security at these public viewing areas. Our district safety work streams are functional within all these district municipalities and are responsible for ensuring the delivery of an integrated safety plan at these public viewing areas. Already 11 public viewing areas have been identified in the province and the number is growing.
Our justice cluster is busy finalising its plans. The new law courts in the host city will have two regional courts and four district courts exclusive for 2010 matters. Training of staff is at an advance stage particularly on foreign languages so as to ensure no blockages in the criminal justice system. Correctional centres in Port Elizabeth, East London and Mthatha are ready for 2010.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, the host city preparations are at an advanced stage. The disaster management centre has been upgraded, closed circuit television cameras have been installed at strategic points within the host city and an incident command vehicle has been purchased to serve as a mobile community service centre.
I am confident that the security plans particularly for the host city will be completed early next year. We are now testing and refining our plans. The dry runs have assisted tremendously as we move towards finalising our 2010 plans. Private security companies need to fully comply with all the necessary requirements and cooperate with the police. The department will monitor compliance very strictly.
We further need to strengthen our accreditation and protocol order of proceedings. A standard operations procedure will be developed by the national 2010 office so as to ensure that we do not have a repeat of the mistakes we made during the Confederation Cup and other big events in the metropolitan. We are asking for cooperation from all role players.
Our disaster management plan is also in the process of being finalised and being aligned to meet 2010 demands. This plan is of critical importance in case of a disaster. Through the Eastern Cape justice, crime prevention and security cluster, we will oversight the readiness of the law enforcement agencies for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup.
Our plans are ready and the remaining challenge is for all stakeholders to have a common understanding of our roles and responsibilities in order that we have effective communication. We will not succeed in providing a safe and secure 2010 FIFA World Cup if our people are not actively involved. We call upon our community police forums to lead the charge of mobilising our communities against crime and massive participation in 2010 programmes throughout the province.
As we are planning to have safety volunteers and stewards, our people, especially the youth, should join forces with us. We need to ensure that all parts of the Eastern Cape province, including townships, are accessible to all visitors to create a crime free environment. We are asking tavern owners to be responsible in managing their outlets and discourage people to abuse alcohol. We will not tolerate illegal shebeens and the police must close all these with immediate effect.
We need the cooperation of all sectors of society particularly business in order to sustain this project until 2010 so as to pave the way for peace and stability during the tournament. In fact, at the January 2010 summit, we will recommend that we embark on imbizos in all our public viewing sites as part of an integrated advocacy campaign to talk to our people about:
* What 2010 is all about?
* Strengthen tourists’ safety. We believe that there is an urgent need to finalise our tourism safety plan and to link up with the business sector as a major role player in its implementation
* Combating the challenge of human trafficking during the tournament. This week, we launched a programme with the MEC for Social Development Ms Mvana and pledged to have a programme in place for the proper placement and care of street children
* Adhering to FIFA standards
* Selling and promoting FIFA approved brands
* Identifying the role of our old and trusted partners in the fight against crime, community policing forums, especially in the localities where we have public viewing areas.
Our commissions will focus on the following:
* readiness of role players in relation to safety and security
* public viewing areas
* readiness of justice cluster
I am calling upon all delegates to vigorously participate in these commissions so at the end we can all own the safety and security plan.
In conclusion, I would like to further call upon organs of civil society, which include faith based organisations, sport bodies, youth structures, women’s organisations, business, community based organisations and non-governmental organisations to support our endeavours in this mammoth task of fighting crime in this province and help us to make the 2010 FIFA World Cup a tournament that will not only make South Africans, but all Africans, proud.
I am convinced that working together we can do more to assure the people of the Eastern Cape that we are ready to provide an incident free world cup that will leave a lasting legacy for the province and South Africa in general.
I thank you.
Enquiries:
Ncedo Kumbaca
Tell: 043 604 7584
E-mail: nossy.mzini@dot.ecprov.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Transport Safety and Liaison, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
5 November 2009
