When we were closing the last 2010 FIFA World Cup Security Readiness Summit last year, we made it clear that as provincial government we would work very closely with the host city, Nelson Mandela Bay to ensure that we deliver a crime free and incident free tournament.
The meeting that we had this morning was a final broader session, which was attended by a variety of safety and security stakeholders, including the Local Organising Committee (LOC) Chief Security Officer Mr Linda Mti, members of the Intelligence Coordinating Committee, the South African Police Service (SAPS) top management led by Lieutenant General Mpumelelo Landu, community police forum (CPF) provincial board, provincial traffic, officials from various government departments and transport experts from Germany.
We collectively looked at our state of readiness for the tournament, especially the human resources in order to effectively deal with a number of identified challenges, which include:
* protecting street children and curbing human trafficking
* implementation of the 2010 transport master plan
* traffic law enforcement readiness
* threat analysis and risk assessment with a particular focus on labour unrest and service delivery protests
* public viewing areas and readiness of safety patrollers
* safety measures at airports, ports of entry and train stations
We further examined our readiness to police the fan park at St George's stadium, to manage our provincial joint operation centre at Mount Road police station which will have Lieutenant-General Landu as the overall commander, coordination of the venue operational centres at the stadium and the fan park.
As the MEC for Transport, Safety and Liaison in this province, I am convinced that we are ready to receive the world to Nelson Mandela Bay Metro and the Eastern Cape.
We have already made indelible advances such as:
* The finalisation of our safety and security plans
* Disaster management plans
* VIP plans
* Completion of deployment strategies for personnel and resource allocation at the stadium and public viewing areas
* Allocation of dedicated 2010 courts and will be operational within the host city throughout the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup and will function from 07h45 to 23h00 daily.
* Identification of dedicated prosecutors, magistrates, paralegals and interpreters
* Training of 12 officials on foreign languages
* Identification of correctional centres and will be working extended hours to support the SAPS, Justice and Home Affairs
* Cluster joint operation centres have been identified in Port Elizabeth, Mthatha and East London
* Venue operations centre has been identified at the stadium. The newly launched terrestrial trunked radio (TETRA) system will be helpful in such operations, including other venue operation centres in airports, harbours, hotels and rail stations
* Special investigation group has been formed to trace and prosecute offenders as part of a strategy to reduce crime in the Host City.
* Joint court and detective strategy is in place to investigate and prosecute 2010 related cases
* A dedicated group of law enforcement agencies has been established and will be on standby as a reserve group for tactical deployment if the need arises
* Remote search park in place of old Telkom Park sport ground
* Immigration officers will be deployed to this city and at each of the public viewing areas
* Staff has been capacitated to deal with issues of human trafficking and assist victims
* Fire and emergency plans completed which include 80 specially trained fire volunteers if needed
* Closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras to monitor hotspot areas in the city
* High tech equipment to support law enforcement agencies have been procured (card verification devices, breathalyser equipment, vehicles and information technology)
* Seven hundred and nineteen provincial traffic officers are ready to work in collaboration with municipal traffic and the SAPS members to maintain law and order on our roads during the tournament
* Forty eight additional new vehicles have been received for provincial traffic officers.
We will pay particular attention to all major routes and ensure that we check vehicles, especially public transport vehicles and all those that have been found to be not roadworthy would be removed from the road. We will further deal with fatigue by interacting and disrupting the drivers through forcing them out of the road (breaking their trip) to stretch their legs.
We call upon owners of long distance public transport vehicles to ensure that they have at least two drivers per trip in order to avoid fatigue related accidents.
* Five hundred safety patrollers have been trained to assist with security at the seven public viewing areas in Sisa Dukashe stadium in Mdantsane, Port St Johns, Holly Cross in Flagstaff, Lady Grey, Cofimvaba, Grahamstown. These safety patrollers completed their 10 day training course and are now eligible to qualify as security officers. This project is one of our 2010 safety and security legacy projects.
As we speak, training is underway for traffic law enforcement agencies focusing on incident management systems (IMS) in an effort to improve their capacity of dealing with accident and incident scenes. Also included in this training programme are SAPS members, officials from South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) and our customer care consultants, as they are the ones who are receiving information from the traffic officers on the scene.
During the tournament, all road users will be encouraged to notify our customer care centre through our toll free number 0800 644 644 about any accident or incident.
On 4 June 2010, we will be launching the Eastern Cape's first Alcohol Testing Centre here in Port Elizabeth, which has been sponsored by the South African Breweries (SAB), in an effort to intensify our law enforcement against drunken driving.
In conclusion, we can say without fear of contradiction that with 31 days to go the province of the Eastern Cape and our host city Nelson Mandela Bay are ready to receive the people of the world in a crime free and incident free environment!
I thank you.
Enquiries:
Ncedo Kumbaca
Tel: 043 604 7584
E-mail: nossy.mzini@dot.ecprov.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Community Safety, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
10 May 2010
