The issue of crime is a problem for all South Africans — it is not a World Cup problem.
This view was expressed by South African World Cup local organising committee (LOC) CEO Danny Jordaan at a media briefing in Johannesburg on Tuesday outlining the ongoing preparations for the 2010 tournament.
This happened at almost the same time as it was revealed that South African Football Association (Safa) CEO Raymond Hack had been assaulted during a robbery at his Waverley, Johannesburg, home.
Last week a gang of thugs invaded the Houghton home of Bobby Motaung, Kaizer Chiefs’ general manager and son of South African soccer icon Kaizer Motaung, for the second time.
These acts in the country’s horrific plethora of crime are officially, but not unanimously, said to be unrelated to soccer — ”and that exactly is at the crux of what I have been pointing out”, said Jordaan.
”South Africa certainly has a crime problem,” he added, ”but it is a problem of safety in one’s home, safety walking in the streets and safety in the working place on an ongoing basis.
”As for the World Cup, the problem does not evaporate, but past international events, sporting and otherwise, over the last 10 years have indicated dramatically that the issues of safety and security have been controlled as well here as anywhere in the world.
”This is not to say we should minimise the crime problem in a wider context,” he continued, ”but I am confident that it is not an issue that will directly affect the World Cup in 2010.”
In other respects, the briefing at the recently constructed Safa House, which forms part of the Soccer City complex that will act as the headquarters of the 2010 World Cup, did little more than summarise recent developments and confirm the sentiment of South African and Fifa officials that ”everything is going ahead according to plan”.
The hot-potato issue regarding official names of the nine World Cup host cities is ongoing, revealed LOC chairperson Irvin Khoza — with only Johannesburg assured of being known as Johannesburg and Cape Town retaining the name of Cape Town.
In other respects, the controversial obsession with name changing has still to be resolved, with the proposed revised naming of World Cup cities sure to cause problems worldwide and complicate issues for Fifa.
Khoza, however, confirmed that Fifa had agreed to leave the matter in the hands of South African authorities, no matter what the cost and inconvenience — pointing out, however, that Johannesburg had decided against a name change because it would cost R3-billion or more.
It was also confirmed that the LOC would appoint a chief operations officer by June to directly take charge of the 630 World Cup projects that have mushroomed around the 2010 tournament.
Fifa secretary general, Dr Urs Linsi, who is in South Africa for the LOC’s current board of directors meeting, confirmed the record entry of 204 countries who will participate in the World Cup’s preliminary draw in Durban on November 23 — revealing the number could increase to 205 if Montenegro’s admission as the 209th member of the world organisation is ratified in time.
Fifa and the LOC are jointly tackling the mammoth Fan Park project, which revolves round establishing various areas for hundreds of thousands to view World Cup matches on a big screen in a generally festive atmosphere — and which was enormously successful at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
But soccer officials were guarded and non-committal when asked whether they approved of the suggestion of police National Commissioner Police Jackie Selebi to legalise prostitution and the drinking of alcohol in the streets during the World Cup.
It was confirmed that a decision had been taken on the venue for the Confederations Cup Final — an eight-nation precursor in 2009 to the World Cup itself — and an announcement in this respect would be made shortly.
The soccer grapevine, however, has oozed the juicy information that it will be Ellis Park.
It was also announced that Australian-born Michael Palmer would be replaced as head of Fifa’s South African office at Safa House by Ron Delmont for personal reasons.
”I will tell Australians when I get back home,” said Palmer, ”that the World Cup is in good hands.”
But, at the same time, the LOC confirmed they had ”just received the news” that a court injunction was being sought in Cape Town to stop construction of the new World Cup stadium in the city. — Sapa