2010 World Cup Security

FIFA Approved Comprehensive Security Plan

The 2010 Organising Committee's comprehensive security plan was submitted to football's world governing body FIFA in June 2008 and has been approved. It deals with how South Africa will address terror threats, hooliganism and other crimes. Countries competing at the spectacle will also be sending their own specially-trained police officers to assist with language and cultural differences and to support the South Africans. The security officials have been undertaking several simulations and training exercises - such as air and maritime defense and chemical, biological, radioactive and nuclear simulations in Cape Town, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein. Altogether, South Africa has invested more than R1.3 billion (more than 146 million dollars) towards securing the 2010 World Cup.

41,000 Police Officers, Hi-Tech Equipment

The South African Police Service (SAPS) will deploy 41,000 officers for the 2010 World Cup - 31,000 permanent members and 10,000 reservists. That will come at a cost of R640 million (71.7 million dollars). Another R665 million (74.5 million dollars) is being spent on hi-tech equipment and services. Among the equipment are new helicopters, unmanned aircrafts, 10 water cannons, 100 BMWs for highway patrol, mobile command vehicles, body armor and other crowd management resources such as hi-tech bomb disposal equipment. There will also be four mobile command centers with hi-tech monitoring equipment to receive live footage from airplanes and other cameras.

National Defence Force Not In World Cup Budget

One major oversight is that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) still did not have a budget allocated to it for the Confederations Cup and World Cup as of March 16 according to www.defenceweb.co.za. The 2009 budget from February made no provision for military support in safeguarding the events but monies are expected to be approved in October as an additional appropriation.

Attack On Sri Lanka Cricket Team Worries FIFA

FIFA insisted in mid-March that there would be no rescheduling of World Cup matches in light of terrorist attacks a few days earlier in Pakistan where eight people were killed and seven cricketers injured in an attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team in Lahore. Still FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke was nervous enough to call for a "crisis evaluation committee" meeting that same day, saying in a statement: "We need to reinforce our (security) work to the maximum level to ensure that nothing happens in 2010."

Still-High Crime Rates

In July 2008, the South African released crime stats for the period April 2007 to March 2008. The annual police report showed that 18,487 cases of murder were reported to police in 2007-08 - the lowest figure since the turn of the century but still more than 50 people per day. Previously the most cases reported were 21,533 in 2002/03. South Africa's murder ratio now stands at 38.6 out of every 100,000 people compared to last year's ratio of 40.5.

Incidents of rape in the same period decreased 8.8 percent but still amounted to 36,000 women being raped. The number of children murdered went up 22.2 percent, from 1,152 to 1,410. Serious violent crimes such as robbery, assault and attempted murder decreased by 6.4 percent. But house robberies increased by 13.5 percent and carjackings by 4.4 percent, while robberies at businesses rose 47.4 percent.

Past High-Level Events In South Africa

South Africa, however, has hosted its share of high-levels events since 1995. Among them are the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the 1996 African Cup of Nations, the 1998 Non-Aligned Movement summit, the 1999 All Africa Games, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (with 37,000 international delegates) and the 2003 Cricket World Cup.