BuaNews (Tshwane)
Michael Appel
10 September 2008
Johannesburg — Stepping up visible policing is one of the pillars of the City of Ekurhuleni's 2010 tourism safety and security strategy during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
This is according to Ekurhuleni Municipality Project Implementation Specialist, Simphiwe Morajane, who said the city will focus on increasing visible policing in the build up to the biggest soccer spectacular to hit South Africa.
"We are the first point of entrance for visitors for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and 2010 FIFA World Cup," explained Mr Morajane, adding that it remained one of their biggest challenges.
Speaking at a Tourism Imbizo on Tuesday, themed: Safety and Security for 2010 and Beyond, Mr Morajane said the municipality has identified a number of security hotspots during the world cup which include hotels and non-hotel accommodation, fan parks, restaurants, tourist routes, base camps and training stadiums.
He said plans were in place for a 2010 Call Centre which will have the capability to handle emergency calls and provide assistance to South African Tourism (SAT) in terms of statistics.
The call centre, which will be aimed at providing one stop shop for all information related to Ekurhuleni outside of web-based channels, will disseminate information to visitors in foreign languages to cater to diverse nationalities in 2010.
The city has also identified possible Public Viewing Areas (PVAs) for the world cup. They include Germiston Lake, Kaditselana Cultural Village, Leeupan in Wattville, as well as multipurpose parks and pubs in the four surrounding townships.
As Ekurhuleni is not one of the host cities of the world cup, the municipality is encouraging teams to setup their base camps in Ekurhuleni, especially as there are a number of training stadiums in the area.
"After consultation with certain teams [after the 2008 European Championships in Switzerland], it came out that what was important to teams when deciding on where to setup base camp was proximity to hotel, training stadiums, medical facilities, and an airport," Mr Morajane said.
OR Tambo International Airport is the gateway to the world cup and the municipality is well positioned to take full advantage of this.
Some of the unique selling points of Ekurhuleni include its favourable altitude - which is between 1 500 and 1 600 meters above sea-level - as well as the developed road network and abundant accommodation options.
Mr Morajane said challenges the municipality is trying to address include insufficient packaging and advertising of tourism products, inadequate transport linkages, and the fact that there are no visitor information centres at present.
Senior Manager for Institutional Relations at the Gauteng Tourism Authority, Mbuyiselo Kona, said safety and security strategies that are already being rolled out focus on the reduction of violent crimes, reduction of economic crimes, and seek to improve the quality of policing.
"We will also be looking to improve the Criminal Justice System, and develop a social movement against crime," said Mr Kona.
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