Security Article 3                                                                                                      February 2010

Article prepared for the British Chamber of Business in Southern Africa by George Nicholls – CEO Pasco Risk.

100 days to kick off: Are we ready?

Wednesday 3 March 2010 marks the official 100-day countdown to the 11 June kick-off of 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. While few would argue that the tournament is the premier sporting event in the world, the decision to award it to South Africa has been strongly debated since the 15 May 2004 announcement that sparked wild celebrations throughout South Africa and indeed much of Africa. Since then, authorities responsible for the tournament – including the Local Organising Committee (LOC), FIFA and the South African government – appear to have spent much of their time reassuring sponsors, players, fans and above all the media that the event will be managed in a safe, secure and competent manner.

Whilst we also wish to share in the optimism, there have been several key gaffs on behalf of LOC the that give credence to views held by naysayers; problems with timeous appointment of security companies for the Confed Cup and the subsequent departure of members of the LOC security branch, pitches determined to be unsuitable by FIFA with less than four months to go and at the 11th hour SAFA declaring that the Bafana Bafana's World Cup base was 'totally unsuitable'. Shortly following the FIFA conference held at Sun City in February, LOC Chief Executive Danny Jordaan said, “the LOC was fine-tuning its detailed plans for the security of the tournament”, an strategically important issue, which in our opinion should have been cast in concrete some time ago.

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