Kenya: Aviation industry eyes 2010 opportunities – 09/03/2010
The domestic aviation is set to be the only sector to benefit from this 2010 World Cup as Kenya Airways remains upbeat about the African airlines this year owing to the expected surge in passengers going in and out of South Africa. The Post Online reports that Zambezi Airlines CE Don McDonald said the airline had approached local hotels to come up with special offers for the soccer fans who may decide to camp in the country.
Tanzania: Working together towards the WC – 01/03/2010
The Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) has reached an agreement with South African tour operators to help promote Tanzania attractions during 2010 World Cup, notes a report on the allAfrica.com site. TTB director of marketing Amant Macha, thanked the SA tour companies for accepting to work together with TTB in promoting Tanzania’s tourist sites. Macha said some airlines have also agreed to reduce air fairs to and from South Africa in order to enable many Tanzanians and South Africans to travel between the two countries at affordable fare.
Zimbabwe: Industry hoping to cash in on WC – 24/02/2010
Zimbabwe’s ailing tourist industry is hoping to restore its health by luring South African holidaymakers eager to escape the football madness of the 2010 World Cup. The Times reports that the world famous Victoria Falls and rich game parks once made Zimbabwe among Africa’s top holiday destinations. Over the last year, Zimbabwe has begun clawing its back toward normality, abandoning the local currency left worthless by galloping hyperinflation and forming a unity government that has curbed the political violence.
Rwanda: New steering committee for WC festivals – 23/02/2010
The Rwandan cabinet has named a steering committee that will ensure a successful exhibition of Rwandan culture during the 2010 World Cup in June. The New Times reports that the committee that is chaired by Foreign Affairs Minister, Louise Mushikiwabo, also comprises of Ministers of Local Government, Commerce, Sports and culture and the Kigali City Mayor. According to Mayor Aisa Kirabo Kacyira, there will be an exhibition which will be preceded by festivals to be held in Kigali and later in the 2010 World Cup host cities of Durban and Tshwane.
The fight against Malaria, TB and HIV – 21/02/2010
The 2010 World Cup will present a unique platform to mount the fight against malaria, tuberculosis (TB) and HIV in Africa. The pledge was made by Michael D’Hooghe, chairman of the FIFA Medical Committee at the third International Football Medicine Conference in Rustenburg. ’We must use this 2010 World Cup to fight the big three in Africa. We must fight against malaria, TB and HIV, he said.
Zimbabwe: Government targets 30 % of WC tourists – 17/02/2010
Zimbabwe is targeting 30% of the 330 000 tourists expected to come to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, seeking to use the global soccer showpiece to rebrand the country’s image, notes a report on the allAfrica.com site. Addressing journalists during the Ai Pan African Tourism Infrastructure Investment Summit, Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry Walter Mzembi said Government and the private sector were working on extension visits to promote the Victoria Falls during the 2010 World Cup.
Zimbabwe: Reporter on WC assignment arrested - 17/02/2010
Zimbabwe’s security agencies are thwarting attempts to boost tourism to the cash-strapped country during the 2010 World Cup in neighbouring South Africa, a government minister complained. The Times reports that Zimbabwe’s Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi told journalists he was ’extremely concerned’ after a Mexican journalist, who had been specially accredited by authorities to make a documentary on tourist sites in southern Zimbabwe, was wrongfully arrested. Mexico is one of the 32 teams participating in the tournament.
With the 2010 World Cup a mere four months away, the country’s preparations for the international event have entered an exciting and festive phase. School children countrywide have started their own 2010 World Cup that is modelled on the FIFA event. The Zululand Observer reports that In KZN, the Department of Sport and Recreation has partnered with the Department of Education, the Ethekwini Municipality and SAFA to stage the KZN 2010 Provincial Football Festival, taking place from Friday 26 till Sunday 28 February in Durban.
Rwanda’s national carrier RwandAir is ready to fly football fans to South Africa for the upcoming 2010 World Cup. The New Times reports that the company’s acting CE John Mirenge has confirmed that they have been asked to come on board by the tournament’s LOC. ’RwandAir has been invited to be involved in the planning process of the World Cup. We will decide on a special tariff for football fans willing to fly with us to watch the World Cup,’ Mirenge said.
Nigeria: Tourism villages set up by NTDC – 11/02/2010
With the 2010 World Cup just four months away, the Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) has concluded plans to set up tourism villages in two centers in Johannesburg and Cape Town South Africa, as part of efforts by the country to support Africa’s first ever World Cup. According to a report on the allAfrica.com site, the village is the result of agreement reached with MATTH, a South African based tourism organisation that arrange tours for tourists.
The 2010 World Cup host cities of Pretoria, Durban and Johannesburg have invited Kigali City Council (KCC) to showcase its investment potential at the forthcoming world football gala. Speaking to The New Times, the Mayor of Kigali City, Dr. Aisha Kirabo said that the invitation was extended thanks to the existing cooperation between her City and the World Cup host cities in South Africa. Kirabo said plans are in high gear since the initiative has received clearance from cabinet. She said this would be a good platform for showcasing the economic and social potential of Rwanda.
Botswana: Pressure to find WC team escalates – 25/01/2010
Botswana has only eight days to lure 2010 World Cup bound teams to set-up their pre-tournament training camps on its soil, notes a Mmegi report. This is the effect of the announcement by FIFA giving a January 31 deadline for the teams to confirm their bases and training camps for the tournament. Failure to lure World Cup- bound teams is a huge blow for Botswana - and other southern African countries that have spent substantial sums upgrading infrastructure, particularly stadiums in preparation for the first Mundial in the continent.
Zimbabwe: Locals looking to score in 2010 – 19/01/201
Zimbabwe’s Tourism Ministry will seek treasury approval for a $70m plan to cash in on neighbouring South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 World Cup, said Minister Walter Mzembi. ’We have received a budget proposal from various ministries and we have asked them to come up with projects that can be completed around March,’ Mzembi said. According to a to a report on the IoL site, R5m is earmarked for ’an extensive media campaign to advertise our tourist facilities to the outside world’ and one million dollars to set up fun parks for visitors. ’We want to create an atmosphere away from the match venues to connect the people to the event,’ said Mzembi.
SAFA is so concerned about the poor 2010 World Cup ticket sales for Bafana Bafana that they plan to embark on a campaign to mobilise South Africans to embrace the team. ’We need to create a vibe in South Africa for the World Cup,’ said new Safa chief executive Lesley Sedibe yesterday. ’We need to make sure that our people rally behind Bafana Bafana. The first thing we need to do is to identify what the challenges faced by our people are regarding the issue of tickets.’
The Safa CE said he was disappointed that most World Cup tickets bought in South Africa were for teams like England, Germany, Italy and Argentina.
Stop bleating Jordaan, you made the rules - 14/01/2010
Arthur Goldstuck: It’s not a pretty sound. The Local Organising Committee for World Cup 2010 whining about the slow pace of ticket sales is a little like football teams complaining that they don’t get enough credit for their attractive style of football, even as they are being relegated to a lower league. The reality is that Fifa, in consultation with the Local Organising Committee (LOC), set the rules and procedures for local ticket allocation. For Danny Jordaan to complain that England will have more supporters at their games than Bafana Bafana is disingenuous in the extreme.
’It will be tragic is this trend continues,’ he said. Yes, indeed. It’s tragic that Jordaan and his colleagues have allowed this trend to emerge in the first place.
Are South Africans not supporting their own soccer team … or just typically leaving things to the last minute? Or perhaps the 2010 local organising committee (LOC) has finally recognised that the ticket-purchasing process is simply too complicated.
The LOC told the Mail & Guardian on Thursday that the organisation will sell tickets over the counter at a later stage. For now the few South Africans who have credit cards and internet access have had to contend with a complicated application process on Fifa’s website, and the rest have to stand in line at First National Bank.
LOC chief executive officer, Danny Jordaan, complained on Tuesday that fewer than 100 000 tickets have been sold to fans in the six African countries competing in the finals. He was particularly worried that few local fans were buying tickets for Bafana Bafana’s Group A matches against Mexico, Uruguay and France.
Image Source, the world’s leading producer of royalty free stock imagery, announces a prize draw for customers to win a pair of tickets to Cape Town, South Africa for the World Cup. Customers purchasing any product directly from imagesource.com from the 1st January to the 31st March will be automatically entered into a prize draw to win flights, tickets and accommodation to Cape Town, South Africa. To tie in with the launch of the new Image Source Cross-Media product, customers will additionally gain an extra 10 bonus entries with each purchase of a Cross-Media Pack containing matched still images and motion clips, a special bonus which is exclusive to customers purchasing via imagesource.com as opposed to through an Image Source distributor.
Benin blew a 2-0 lead and a golden chance to win their first ever match at the African Nations Cup when they were held to a 2-2 draw by fellow underdogs Mozambique on Tuesday. Benin went 2-0 up in just over 20 minutes but paid dearly for two goalkeeping mistakes against opponents who were also hoping to break their duck at the tournament. Benin, playing in the Nations Cup for the third time, had previously played six matches and lost them all while Mozambique, making their fourth appearance, had managed one point from nine outings.
Togo team tragedy: Second group claims attack - 12/01/2010
A second separatist group on Tuesday claimed it was behind last week’s deadly shooting on the Togolese football team in Angola’s oil-rich enclave of Cabinda. According to a report on the IOL site, the attack has already been claimed by Rodrigues Mingas, head of the Forces for the Liberation of the State of Cabinda-Military Position (Flec-PM), one of the many guerrilla groups battling for independence in the northern province. But a larger group known as the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda-Armed Forces of Cabinda (Flec-Fac) on Tuesday said they had opened fire on Togo’s convoy on Friday, killing two of the squad.
A separatist leader whose group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on the Togolese team bus warns that more violence could take place during the African Cup but says only Angolan soldiers will be targeted. Rodrigues Mingas of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda said the region is still at war. He said Angolan soldiers providing security at the stadium in Cabinda, where four more games are to be played, could be attacked.
Botswana Football Association (BFA) president David Fani, who is part of the local 2010 World Cup Taskforce, says they are still pursuing teams that have qualified for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa to set up camp in Botswana. Despite half of the 32 teams confirming that they would set base in South Africa, Fani said BFA’s campaign to woo teams could not be termed a failure yet. ’We are still in discussion with some teams. Some work has been done and whether it is enough, that will be revealed later,’ Fani said.
Angolan security forces have sealed off the complex housing the football teams contesting the Africa Cup of Nations in restive Cabinda province, hoping to ward off any new separatist attack. Since Friday’s attack on Togo’s squad that killed two people, little has changed in the small town of Cabinda. But the complex dubbed an ’Olympic village’, now housing Burkina Faso, Ghana and Ivory Coast, has been cut off from the world. Police and soldiers patrol the village’s perimeter on foot, in all-terrain vehicles, and on motorcycles. Highly visible special forces, known as "Ninjas" and feared throughout the province, wear sombre uniforms and carry AK-47s.
Angolan security forces have sealed off the complex housing the football teams contesting the Africa Cup of Nations in restive Cabinda province, hoping to ward off any new separatist attack. Since Friday’s attack on Togo’s squad that killed two people, little has changed in the small town of Cabinda. But the complex dubbed an ’Olympic village’, now housing Burkina Faso, Ghana and Ivory Coast, has been cut off from the world. Police and soldiers patrol the village’s perimeter on foot, in all-terrain vehicles, and on motorcycles. Highly visible special forces, known as "Ninjas" and feared throughout the province, wear sombre uniforms and carry AK-47s.
Angolan security forces have sealed off the complex housing the football teams contesting the Africa Cup of Nations in restive Cabinda province, hoping to ward off any new separatist attack. Since Friday’s attack on Togo’s squad that killed two people, little has changed in the small town of Cabinda. But the complex dubbed an ’Olympic village’, now housing Burkina Faso, Ghana and Ivory Coast, has been cut off from the world. Police and soldiers patrol the village’s perimeter on foot, in all-terrain vehicles, and on motorcycles. Highly visible special forces, known as "Ninjas" and feared throughout the province, wear sombre uniforms and carry AK-47s.
Togo have been threatened with punishment after their withdrawal from the Africa Cup of Nations, adding outrageous insult to the grievous injuries they have suffered. The Telegraphy reports that the organiser of the competition, the Confederation of African Football, is understood to be examining possible sanctions for the Togolese, who decided to return home after three people were killed when the squad were attacked by gunmen in Angola. An unnamed member of CAF told a French news agency that there would be a formal gathering at the end of the month of the body’s executive committee which would discuss what happened and that the meeting ‘provides for sanctions’. If such measures were taken it would lead to an outcry in world football.
Zambia has agreed to supply power to South Africa to help avoid power disruptions during the 2010 World Cup, the head of the state power utility Zesco said on Saturday. South Africa’s power grid has been under pressure for more than two years and experienced country-wide power cuts early in 2008. State-owned Eskom has said there would be adequate supply for the tournament. Zesco acting managing director, Cyprian Chitundu said on state ZNBC television Zambia would supply power to South Africa and the quantity would depend on Zambia’s surplus capacity as well demand from South Africa.
The SABC would broadcast the Africa Cup of Nations starting from Sunday, the state broadcaster said on Saturday. The SABC had sent a team of negotiators to France in a bid to find permission from SportFive - the rights agent for the Confederation of African Football - to broadcast the tournament. This follows SportFive forcing the SABC to pay over R1bn in terms of a series of agreements allegedly entered into between the parties in 2008. The broadcaster said the agreements were invalid because it was not authorised in terms of the South African statutes governing the SABC.
Bono, Daily Telegraph: A few years ago, Ivory Coast was splitting apart and in the midst of civil war when its national team qualified for the 2006 jamboree. The response was so ecstatic that the war was largely put on hold as something more important than deathly combat took place, i.e. a soccer match. The team became a symbol of how the different tribes could and did get on after the tournament was over. This time round, for the 2010 World Cup, naysayers thought South Africa could not build the stadiums in time. Those critics should be red-faced now. South Africa’s impressive preparations underline the changes on the continent, where over the past few years, 5 per cent economic growth was the average. Signs point to a further decade of growth to come.
Former Safa president Molefi Oliphant has been appointed deputy chairperson of the Local Organising Committee for the 27th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals in Angola. ‘It’s a great honour to serve as one of the supervisors of the Afcon finals, which is one of the big football competitions in the world,’ Oliphant said. Oliphant, who is still a board member of the 2010 World Cup Local Organising Committee, has been appointed head of Benguela, the second-largest city in Angola.
Didier Drogba of Chelsea and Ivory Coast has been crowned the 2009 BBC African Footballer of the Year. The striker beat Samuel Eto’o, Michael Essien, Yaya Toure, and Tresor Mputu Mabi to the title. The results of the poll - voted for by football fans around the world - were announced live from Angola on the BBC African Service Fast Track programme. Drogba is preparing to lead his country at the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, where the Elephants are favourites.
