World Cup: Police
Vows To Deal With Terrorism
Tony Ekata, Johannesburg
The
South African Police Service has vowed to deal with terrorism
and criminality swiftly and with no mercy, to ensure safety
during the FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup, kicking off in June.
Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa declared in the ruling
party’s online newspaper ANC Today, that the police has
earmarked about one-point-three billion Rand to provide adequate
security and make the month-long soccer fiesta safe for the
hundreds of thousands of foreign and local fans.
Logistics upgrade
The Minister said the police had already spent six hundred and
sixty-five million rand on equipment, ranging from helicopters
to BMW Highway Patrol cars, to be deployed first for World Cup
security and subsequently to boost regular policing activities.
Other new equipment include mobile cameras, water cannons and
four mobile command units at a cost of six million rand each.
Mthethwa said a further six hundred and forty million rand would
be spent to deploy forty-one thousand officers, specifically to
ensure the safety of teams and spectators.
Under the plan, each national team will be provided with a team
of South African Police Service (SAPS) intervention force
members and private security assigned to them for the duration
of the event.
The Police and the defence force will be put on full alert
throughout the event and a special twenty-four-hour call centre
will offer health and security advice to all visitors.
Special areas of coverage
Security will focus on places such as airports, FIFA offices,
hotels, stadiums, fan parks and tourist destinations.
About forty helicopters will be available for surveillance with
cameras linked to monitors on the ground.
Also, the SAPS will work with foreign police who will contribute
skills, language and cultural knowledge appropriate to the
different nations participating.
There are fresh concerns about security during the World Cup
following televised threats by self-confessed criminals that
they would make the best of the season to rob foreign visitors,
as compensation for the plunder of African resources by the
colonial masters.
Yinka
