Madam Speaker
Honourable members
It gives me immense pleasure and pride to stand before you this morning united with the rest of South Africans in saying, yes we did it!
Indeed we rose to challenge and went far beyond expectations in hosting what is arguably one of the best World Cup tournaments in FIFA’s history and the third biggest ever, after America’s 1994 and Germany’s 2006 tournaments.
I am proud too that the people of KwaZulu-Natal can today stand up tall and count themselves as an important part of the history created by South Africans just a few weeks ago.
Madam Speaker, I would like to take this House through the targets we had set ourselves in implementing the province’s 2010 and beyond programme and highlight the strides we made pre and during the tournament itself, and of course plans in place to sustain this legacy.
Before doing so, I would like to highlight the significant economic impact hosting this global event has already had on South Africa just weeks after the final whistle was blown.
Preliminary projections made by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is that the direct economic impact of the World Cup on South Africa is in the region of R93 billion. Our own estimates for KwaZulu-Natal, currently being verified by a team led by the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, are that the direct injection into KwaZulu-Natal’s economy sits at R3 billion.
Madam Speaker, the long term benefits to South Africa in general and KwaZulu-Natal in particular will far exceed these estimates as the intangible benefits kick in the coming years.
The global marketing exposure we have received from successfully hosting this tournament has firmly put us on a world map as a serious global player, and will immensely grow investment opportunities and greatly boost the tourism industry.
We already felt the growing tourist interest in our province as the seven matches hosted at Moses Mabhida Stadium attracted a massive crowd of and record attendance of 766 412 at Durban’s FIFA Fan Park, which proved to be the most popular in the country because of its unique features, one of which was being right on the beach and supported by warm summer weather in winter.
Stadium development
Madam Speaker, we set out to improve our stadia infrastructure, recognising the importance of developing our stadium to ensure they are of an international standard, while ensuring that they serve a bigger purpose beyond the tournament, to greatly boost youth sports development in the various communities.
We identified seven stadiums, namely the Harry Gwala Stadium in Pietermaritzburg, uMhlathuze multi-sports Centre in Richards Bay, Monte Vista sports complex in Newcastle, Ugu Sports and Leisure Centre near Port Shepstone, Princess Magogo stadium in KwaMashu, King Zwelithini Stadium in Umlazi and Sugar Ray Xulu stadium in Clermont.
Princess Magogo and Sugar Ray Xulu stadium were used as training venues for the teams playing at Moses Mabhida stadium, with Ugu and uMhlathuze stadium being used by the Algerian and Nigerian teams and Harry Gwala stadium used by the Paraguayan for community activations.
This in itself gave the facilities a marketing platform, and sustainability plans are in place to ensure they are optimally utilised in future.
The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs was mandated with the responsibility to manage the construction or rehabilitation of the soccer stadia in the four districts and eThekwini.
A total ofR410 463 000 was spent by the provincial government as a contribution towards stadia development, and today we can proudly say our children’s lives in previously marginalised communities have changed for the better as they will not sit idling after school – they now have facilities they can use to realise their sporting potential.
Transport network, health and security services
Transport
Experience tells us that issues of access, health and security make or break any major international event and thus it was critical for us to ensure that the province’s transport network, health services and security worked without any glitches.
To this end, the Department of the Department of Transport, Durban Host City, ACSA and PRASA, worked around the clock to ensure a smooth transport network operated in the province during the World Cup.
A number of roads were constructed and upgraded by the Department of Transport over the past three years, including roads leading to team base camps as well as the R102 corridor to support traffic to and from the new King Shaka International Airport (KSIA), which became fully operational before the 2010 World Cup kick off. The R102 corridor thus became one of the essential projects executed as part of the 2010 World Cup by the department.
The department spent a total of R402 388 762.10 on the road construction and upgrades during the MTEF period.
Health
During the tournament, the provincial Department of Health operated the Medical Operation Centre (MOC), which included the coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the service provision at all 2010 impact areas as well as liaising with other stakeholders such as the National Health Operation, South African Police Service (SAPS) provincial joint operations and intelligence centre, the host city joint operations centre and all other venue operation centres across the province.
This 24-hour centre was responsible for compiling situational reports, notification of incidents at the impact areas, monitoring of bed status at the designated hospitals in the province on an hourly basis, CDC and environmental health reporting.
The department also provided health support services at Moses Mabhida Stadium on both match and non match days, with Emergency Medical Rescue Services as the key driver. The department was assisted by the South African Military Health Services in most of its deployments. Full services were also rendered at Durban’s FIFA Fan Fest and at the Public Viewing Areas (PVAs) around the province, with EMRS staff also giving support at team base camp venues - hotels and training facilities.
Security
Our security agencies were instrumental in ensuring that South African received the 8/10 rating from FIFA as the 2010 World Cup host. In KwaZulu-Natal, the team work, dedication and precision with which our security agencies carried their duties saw our visitors and locals enjoying a glitch-free World Cup experience.
The Department of Community Safety and Liaison’s volunteer social crime prevention project was also a resounding success.
The department recruited and trained 2100 volunteers throughout the province over the past year, and during the tournament it seconded stewards and marshals from the pool of trained community safety volunteers to provide security and marshaling for the team base camps and Public Viewing Areas (PVAs). A total of 250 volunteers performed security functions in five team base camps and 940 volunteers were marshals at the PVAs.
Skilling our people
Another 2010 Legacy project we are proud of, Madam Speaker, is the skills programme run by the Department of Education which has seen 5 224 students trained in various skills.
A total of R21 million was allocated over two financial years – 2008/09 and 2009/10 – for the skills training programme, which commenced in September 2009.
Out of 2836 students who trained in hospitality services, languages services, travel and tourism and ICT, 2411 students were placed at Moses Mabhida Stadium to render services during the tournament. This figure constitutes 85 percent of trained students who were successfully placed.
Trained students have been afforded exposure to their respective fields of training and they have gained the necessary experience to make them marketable and employable.
Ensuring our people’s participation
Madam Speaker, in the run up the World Cup the provincial government launched a community mobilisation campaign aimed at encouraging civic pride and proactive community participation in the World Cup.
The Department of Sports and Recreation also launched a highly successful and countrywide mass mobilisation campaign which saw interactions with communities in the length and breadth of KwaZulu-Natal.
Teams from government visited schools, churches, held community road shows, youth entertainment sports, shopping centres and other key attraction spots, conveying messages of encouragement to the public to play perfect hosts to our visitors during the world cup.
Government’s decision to invest in the hosting of Public Viewing Areas (PVAs) during the World Cup tournament paid off tremendously, ensuring that thousands of our people without resources to watch matches in the host city were part of the excitement and of making history.
They flocked to the PVAs in their numbers and the figures released by the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, which was the champion of the programme, show that a total number of 435 734 watch matches in the province’s 10 PVAs on host days.
Madam Speaker, PVAs were not only a means of entertainment for our people, but also played a major role in empowering local small businesses.
Hosting team base camps
Madam Speaker, KwaZulu-Natal is proud that we were able to host five World Cup participating teams during the tournament, namely Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Greece and Paraguay in various parts of the province.
This too ensured that we brought the World Cup action closer to our people as most of the teams interacted actively with communities close to their team base camps.
Plans are underway for some of these teams to come back to the province in the not-so-distant future for friendly matches, details of which are still to be worked out by all parties concerned.
Hosting of strategic international stakeholders
Madam Speaker, we are overwhelmed by the interest that has been shown by the international community to our province following the hosting of a much successful ever FIFA World Cup on the African soil.
The World Cup presented government the opportunity to showcase the province’s unparalleled natural resources, a tapestry of cultures, rich history and heritage and indeed magnificent topography that features evergreen valleys, eternally laughing waterfalls and attractive beaches – all ready to welcome both business and ordinary tourists.
To give visitors a true KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) warm experience, we developed a host programme involving a broad cross-section of leadership of our people, across all sectors, irrespective of their religion and political affiliation.
Under the theme: “KZN – taking South Africa forward” we deployed our leaders to strategic areas where they acted as KZN ambassadors, effectively becoming the face of the province.They interacted with key stakeholders that we hosted who we believe would add immense value to the growth and development of our province.
Most critically, our plan entailed a visit to Pretoria to share our vision with the diplomatic community over dinner with ambassadors. We invited them to identify influential stakeholders from their respective countries who would be visiting South Africa during the World Cup.
Madam Speaker, I am proud to report that the hosting plan was appreciated by the majority of the 56 ambassadors and high commissioners who attended pre match events.Other guests we hosted include business people, chief executive officers, chairpersons of boards, political leaders and others from abroad who would promote the province.
Everyday we see evidence of how the world is evolving into one global village with the need for the sharing of information growing at a rapid pace. With this in mind, the provincial government combined the conventional marketing instruments with the modern marketing tools.
We distributed USB, with information about KZN, to international visitors with an aim of ensuring that KZN stays on the information superhighway enabling the province’s strong features to be known by the global community.
Madam Speaker, we embarked on a hosting programme initiative fully mindful of our commitment as this Government to fiscal discipline and prudent utilisation of our limited financial resources.
We received an advisory from National Treasury regarding the buying of World Cup tickets willy-nilly.
It said: “In view of the requirements of the law, please be advised that any diversion of funds towards the purchase of World Cup tickets and memorabilia will be considered as unauthorised and irregular expenditure.
“Heads of departments who initiate such expenditure will thus be in violation of the PFMA, will be liable for a recovery of the relevant funds and will have committed an act of financial misconduct in terms of section 81 of the act”.
Our government discussed and endorsed the letter. We then instructed all our provincial departments and municipalities not to purchase any tickets because we had developed a hosting plan.
We are making available an extract from a policy document endorsed by Cabinet for this purpose. It spells out how we sought to use the World Cup as a strategic platform to market the province internationally as an investment and tourism destination.
From the budget we had already allocated funds for 2010 World Cup activities and the legislature approved our budget.
Therefore no diversion of funds has occurred.
In total we spent R8 452 384 to buy 550 tickets that were distributed to various stakeholders that assisted as hosts during the programme.
In addition, we bought 1 430 stand tickets which were made available for purchase by various stakeholders when it became apparent that some tickets would no longer be needed in our hosting plan. These costs will be recovered from those who took advantage of the offer.
Except for opening and closing matches, no MEC personally received tickets as they utilised tickets allocated by the Local Organising Committee. All MPLs and public servants who were assigned hosting tasks were allocated on a roster, not out of choice.
We are satisfied that the provincial policy satisfied the provisions of the Ministerial Handbook, the Treasury letter and that KwaZulu-Natal got value for money.
All documents have been submitted for full audit by the Auditor’s General’s office.
The government of KwaZulu-Natal has always been cognizant of the immeasurable global marketing opportunities offered by hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup and as such we have always viewed this as KwaZulu-Natal’s time to take its rightful place internationally.
While we remained the most loved and preferred domestic tourism destination, our performance internationally has and is not where we would like to see it, hence our decision to go on an aggressive international marketing campaign.
It is in this light that we viewed the six weeks of the tournament as a perfect opportunity to get the attention of strategic international guests who would not normally travel to KwaZulu-Natal and whom we would have to travel miles to market ourselves to in their respective foreign countries.
By and large, the province ran a successful hosting programme which not only saw our guests leave our shores with a renewed respect of our province, but also more knowledgeable of our offerings and the investment opportunities that exist in our rich land.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people involved in making our hosting programme the resounding success that it was, acting as gracious hosts and leaving a good and lasting impression of the province in our guests’ minds.
Let me start by thanking the members of the Legislature who attended our strategic hosting platforms, the business community, religious leaders, amakhosi and all other partners that joined us and ensured that we marketed our beautiful province the best way possible.
I thank you.
Enquiries:
Ndabezinhle Sibiya
Cell: 082 3754742
Regi Khumalo
Cell: 0797516108
