South African ambassador details his country’s plans and readiness for World Cup-2010
The ambassador specifically noted that most of the projects earmarked for the events have been completed, while the rest will be completed in accordance with the delivery schedules, well ahead of the kick off in June 2010. “Therefore, I can say on behalf of the South African Government today that we are completely ready to host the global event at the highest FIFA quality standard levels.” A testimony of our country’s readiness for the 2010 event was the ‘dress rehearsal’ in the form of the FIFA Confederations Cup 2009, an international soccer competition — dubbed the ‘Festival of Continental Champions,’ also the first time in Africa — which ran from June 14-28 across several stadiums that will also serve as arenas for the 2010 competitions.
Among the key projects approved by FIFA and being executed for the events are the constructions of new stadiums and upgrading existing ones to the FIFA standards. Also in this list are other vital urban and social infrastructural projects. All these projects are being executed with the aim making all visitors at home in South Africa during the competitions. The ambassador noted that the realization of these projects will generate between 20,000 and 160,000 new jobs and provide top-quality facilities and services needed to cater for over 400,000 guests expected to visit South Africa during the World Cup, which is expected attract a TV audience of over 3bln viewers. “All these additional features, facilities and services are expected to significantly boost the RSA tourism industry, which is among the world’s most developed tourist destinations that currently attracts about 8mln international travelers a year, to a higher level, and thus increasing the overall number of tourists that will be coming to the country after the World Cup.”
“For us, South Africans, it will be a great honor to host the world’s most popular sporting events in 2010. This why the choice of South Africa as the World Cup-2010 host was greeted with unprecedented jubilations not only in our country, but also throughout the entire African continent.”
The ambassador also noted that the RSA Embassy in Moscow and missions in other parts of the CIS will do all their best to ensure that all soccer fans from these regions wishing to visit South Africa during the competitions will not face unnecessary visa hurdles, as the Embassy plans to ‘simply’ visa requirements. Besides, the Embassy also plans to put other special ad-hoc arrangements in place, including fast-tracking visa processing procedures, from the traditional five days to a much shorter time span, for those going to the World Cup. “Even the visa and migration officials have pledged to sleep in the Embassy during this period to ensure that all soccer lovers meeting our visa requirements get their all traveling permits on time and without hassles.” The ambassador also called on Russian tour companies to get in touch with the Embassy visa staff and offer suggestions on ways of minimizing visa requirements for their clients wishing to watch the FIFA events.
The event’s uniqueness and importance to all Africa
The ambassador specifically noted the huge importance of the World Cup, the first of its kind ever in Africa, a fact that he said underscored the reason why South Africa does not view the event as only a ‘national,’ but rather as a ‘continental project’ for all Africans as it will significantly boost the image of the continent and remove most, if not all the rampant misconceptions about RSA in particular, and the continent, as a whole.
“This is why we intend to make the event a unique and unforgettable African experience, the reason why the 2010 World Cup in RSA and all other programs associated with it will be totally different from the previous ones, not only in terms of quality and standards of services and facilities, where we plan to even excel the standard FIFA requirements, but also in terms of the unprecedented scale of unparalleled side attractions, including a full spectrum of all African cultural programs unique only to RSA and the continent,” he added. “We definitely will organize these events to the best quality standard levels, and then go beyond them to offer lots of ‘African colors’ aimed at making the competitions an unforgettable, once-in-a-life-time experience for both the events’ participants and visitors.”
overwhelming support the World Cup is enjoying throughout the continent. The highest enthusiasm is among RSA’s closest neighbors and other Southern African states, which are provide their best sporting facilities such as training grounds for some of the competitors and hospitality services, including accommodations — for both competitors and fans — during the events. “Consequently, these countries are also upgrading their infrastructure and amenities such transportation, security, healthcare, etc., to the FIFA-approved standards,” he said. “And, this means that after the World Cup, these countries’ amenities will be at the world-class quality level, and thus improving the qualities of services available to the local residents, while making the countries much more attractive as tourist destinations for international travelers and/or for holding other local and international events.” Security issues not long a matter of concern
Langa specifically noted that the apprehensions raised over the security issues in RSA resulted from skepticism of people, who have never been to Africa, over hosting the event on the continent, and then moved on to stress that all the standard FIFA security requirements are being fully met and that no security hitches can mire the historical events for his country and Africa as a whole. “We simply decided to counteract these negative views and absolutely baseless misconceptions by providing more information on RSA and also through actions and deeds that have now significantly changed the international opinion about our country today.”
The ambassador said some of the security measures recommended by FIFA now under implementation include the establishment of close cooperation with international security organizations and sensitization of hospitality services providers to the need for upgrading security measures, etc. “Other security measures include full mobilization of the law-enforcement forces to keep security measures watertight prior to and during the competitions, not only in the cities hosting these events, but throughout the country,” he added. “And, finally, the government has already mobilized the public by making every South African to see himself/herself as a ‘personal host’ of the event. This is being done to make the lives of the event guests a lot easier during their stays in the country.”
Total events budget still elusive
According to the RSA government’s World Cup site, the official direct budget for the all World Cup-related projects currently stands at R17.4bln (about $2.18bln), of which R9bln are being invested into transport and supporting infrastructure, while R8.4bln are being used to build five new stadiums and upgrade another five.
However, it is not only World Cup’s direct projects that are being funded, as the government’s Medium Term Budget Policy Statement on the World Cup, which details investment outlays between 2006 and 2010, also provides for non-infrastructure projects, from sports and recreational programs, art and culture programs, healthcare facilities to a state-of-the-art media center equipped with the most advanced telecom gadgets, etc. In all, the government plans to invest over R400bln (about $50bln) into overhauling the country’s entire infrastructure – from rail, air and other transportation services and energy production, to communications and other modern amenities. 
Talking about the overall budget for the events, Langa noted that it is currently difficult to state the overall cost of all the projects. The ambassador attributed the difficulties in pinpointing the exact budget at this point in time to several objective factors, including the fact that the projected preliminary expenditures are regularly reviewed to factor in the negative impacts of the current global financial crisis and other issues that might arise during the executions of these projects. Besides, some of these projects are still under development, and therefore would not be appropriate to speculate on their overall costs, which could still go either ways. “Therefore, at this moment, it would be more appropriate to give the sum already spent, which currently stands at about $11.7bln. “However, this is far from the overall cost of the entire budget for holding the event,” he noted.
The ambassador also noted the highly diversified nature of funding these projects and their time spans as a reason why it is difficult today to name the exact budget. For instance, some of the funding for the developments of the World Cup projects also comes from different provincial governments and city administrations’ budgets. Besides, some of the projects are not only specifically meant for the World Cup events. “In other words, the World Cup-related capital-intensive projects have only helped to catalyst the developments of some other urban social amenities within the frameworks of the government’s World Cup preparation programs,” he added. “Therefore, the final and exact overall budget can only be known after the tournament in the second half of 2010.”
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