Cape Town — Prostitution and human trafficking are looming as big crime problems for the two major Fifa football tournaments that will be held in SA this year and next year.

They required a national response as well as action from host cities, Parliament's sports committee was told yesterday.

Even as Tshwane metropolitan council and Mangaung (Bloemfontein) reported to the committee that they were well on course for this year's Confederations Cup and next year's World Cup, they received a grilling from MPs concerned about crime and local traders falling foul of soccer ruling body Fifa's marketing rules.

The African National Congress chairman of the committee, Butana Komphela, told the delegations from Tshwane and Mangaung that both Rustenberg and Johannesburg had given wonderful reports on their state of readiness to the committee and this included the measures that would be in place to combat crime in the streets.

Komphela said that measures had to be in place for when "these English people come" to a city. He said they were known for partying in the streets and shops would be plundered while the police stood like a guard of honour. He said there were also times when South Africans behaved badly in the streets.

ANC MPs, including Komphela, asked Tshwane 2010 co-ordinator Godfrey Nkwane what the city intended to do about the inevitable influx of prostitutes and how they would be controlled.

Komphela said everywhere in the world where there had been a world cup this had happened, and it presented a particular problem in SA because prostitution was illegal here. "We are asking: are there plans to deal with a situation where this is not legal?"

Nkwane replied that this was not a "city of Tshwane problem, also not only a South African problem, but an international problem and it involves not only sex workers but also human trafficking". He said the police of host cities and the South African Police Service were involved to ensure the problem was contained.

He said it was part of the national agenda of the safety and security cluster of ministries, so "it is not a question that Tshwane can answer on its own but (one which) must also be answered on a national level". He conceded that it was a problem that had been identified for the two football tournaments.

MPs responded by saying that the Bafokeng in Rustenburg had taken certain measures to ensure orderliness. Johannesburg had also done this. They insisted that they wanted to hear more about how this "huge problem" would be managed.

Nkwane said: "We are dealing with two different categories (of prostitutes), some on the street and others who operate from houses. For us to be able to contain (the problem) we need to know what streets they operate on. That we can manage, but the others are not visible, and, where human trafficking takes place, are not on the streets."

Komphela said there was a high potential for human and drugs trafficking and "we can't pretend that we may not end up in a situation". He said that in Rustenburg and Johannesburg, more closed-circuit TV cameras were being mounted.