| Cape Town: BA passengers tip the Mother City – 28/07/2010 |
Cape Town is now the favourite destination for British Airlines (BA) passengers worldwide, and the airline is starting a new daily flight to Cape Town as from November. Fin24 reports that BA says its new Boeing 777 will be introduced for the route. Sue Botes, BA’s commercial manager in South Africa, says demand for flights to Cape Town was on the rise even before the 2010 World Cup tournament. Passengers throughout the world who fly BA have identified Cape Town as their favourite destination.
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Full Fin24 report
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| Port Elizabeth: City still on a WC high - 14/07/2010 |
Tourists and football fans have streamed into Port Elizabeth in ’unprecedented’ numbers since the start of the World Cup, Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism (NMBT) said. ’Particularly on the day of a match played in the city, and on the day before and after, most establishments have been fully booked,’ said NMBT spokesperson Titus Chuene. Tallies were still being made and official figures would only be available towards the end of the month, ’but it appears visitors have come here in unprecedented numbers’, he said.
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Full report on the IoL site
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| Cape Town: Get our stadium name right - 30/06/2010 |
The name of the Mother City’s 2010 stadium is Cape Town Stadium, not Green Point Stadium, the city said. Its communications department said Green Point had been a ’working title’ while the 68 000-seater stadium was under construction. ’The city would like to remind the public that the stadium’s official name is the Cape Town Stadium, as approved by council last year,’ it said in a statement.
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Full report on the Sport24 site
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| Durban: City a big hit - 29/06/2010 |
An estimated 30 000 visitors have flocked to KwaZulu-Natal since the 2010 World Cup started, the provincial tourism department said. ’We had a target of 25 000 tourists visiting our province and we exceeded this. We have also noted that during match days the province attracts about 30 000 fans,’ MEC for economic development and tourism Mike Mabuyakhulu told journalists in Durban. According to a report on the IoL site, Durban’s FIFA Fan Fest was the most popular in the country, attracting more than 200 000 since the start of the tournament.
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Full report on the IoL siteFull
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| Cape Town: Robben Island covered with soccer passion - 28/06/2010 |
Among the tourist attractions in South Africa on World Cup football fans ’must-do’ lists, one of the most notorious penal colonies of the last century is right up there. SPort24 reports that Robben Island, a barren outcrop off the Cape Town coast, is best known for being home to political prisoners jailed by the old apartheid government, most famously former leader Nelson Mandela and current president Jacob Zuma.
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Full Sport24 reportSport24
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| Durban: Surfing the WC wave – 25/06/2010 |
It may be winter in South Africa, with Arctic temperatures swirling around Johannesburg for evening World Cup games, but the Indian Ocean city of Durban is thriving in its sub-tropical climate, notes a report on the IoL site. ’The warmest place to be,’ boast the posters promoting the 2010 World Cup of Durban, host to seven matches including a semi-final. Well, they weren’t lying, and bar a couple of monsoon-like downpours, it is winter in name only. Surfers ride the waves, football and cricket games dot the wide sandy beach, and others merely content themselves with a gentle stroll in temperatures that can surpass 25 degrees C in the day.
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Full report on the IoL site
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| Durban: SA impresses tourists – 24/06/2010 |
2010 World Cup visitors have been so impressed with South African hospitality they will become the country’s tourism ambassadors when they return to their countries, Durban’s mayor said. Sport24 reports that Obed Mlaba said he met many visitors who had been singing the host country’s praises. ’They will go back with a different view of our country. Many came here thinking that they were visiting a very harsh and hostile country. They have been treated well and they are happy.’
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Full Sport24 reportSport24
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| Cape Toen: Dutch fans to paint city orange – 23/06/2010 |
As far as the Dutch are concerned, things couldn’t be better in Cape Town. Large numbers of fans of the Dutch soccer team have promised to paint the city centre orange on Thursday for their team’s World Cup match against Cameroon. Sport24 reports that the match will begin at 20:30 at Cape Town Stadium, but thousands of members of the Royal Netherlands Football Association, Supporter’s Club Oranje and De Oranjecamping were expected at the official FIFA Fan Fest at the Grand Parade in the early afternoon.
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Full Sport24 reportSport24
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| Cape Town: City set for massive party – 10/06/2010 |
The Mother City is preparing for a party expected to draw over 60 000 people to celebrate the opening of the World Cup on Thursday, the City of Cape Town said. Sport24 reports that roads in and around the city centre will close from 14:00 to midnight to make way for a FIFA World Cup street festival. Up to 17 000 people were expected to attend the event at the official Grand Parade Fan Fest site, with another 50 000 people expected to gather in the city centre for the ’Welcome the World to the Mother City’ street festival.
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Full Sport24 report
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| Durban: Stick to WC traffic rules – 08/06/2010 |
Durban city manager Mike Sutcliffe has called on 240 transport operators contracted to the city to operate from park-and-ride venues during the 2010 World Cup to obey the rules. The Sowetan reports that Sutcliffe, speaking at the launch of the transport shuttle service, told the transport operators that the city’s traffic police would not harass them if they abided by the rules of the road.
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Full report in The Sowetan
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| Cape Town: Road closures during street festival – 08/06/2010 |
The City of Cape Town has announced a series of road closures for its spectacular street festival to ’welcome the world to the Mother City’. On Thursday, 10 June, some 17 000 revellers are expected to gather at the FIFA Fan Fest on the Grand Parade and another 50 000 in the city centre. ’This party promises to be bigger, better and safer than any of the City’s previous parties. But with safety in mind, the City will be closing certain roads from 14:00 to 24:00 on that day,’ says Executive Mayor Dan Plato.
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Full press releasepress
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| Durban: King Shaka prepares for fans – 03/06/2010 |
KwaZulu-Natal’s King Shaka International Airport will move its public pick-up and drop-off areas in anticipation of the thousands of passengers who will pass through the airport during the 2010 World Cup. To accommodate the ’unprecedented high number of airline passengers into Durban’ for the tournament, Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) has developed a Special Transport Operational Plan.
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Full All Africa report
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| King Shaka prepares for fans – 03/06/2010 |
KwaZulu-Natal’s King Shaka International Airport will move its public pick-up and drop-off areas in anticipation of the thousands of passengers who will pass through the airport during the 2010 World Cup. To accommodate the ’unprecedented high number of airline passengers into Durban’ for the tournament, Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) has developed a Special Transport Operational Plan.
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Full All Africa report
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| Port Elizabeth: City flooded with condoms for WC fans – 03/06/2010flooded |
Port Elizabeth and the surrounding towns are being flooded with condoms for ’ultimate safety’ ahead of the 2010 World Cup, local authorities said. Nelson Mandela Bay municipality said it intended distributing 2.4 million condoms ’to ensure ultimate safety at the tournament’. ’Nelson Mandela Bay is ready to score,’ it said. According to an IoL report, a first consignment of 1.2 million condoms had been received last week from the provincial health department, and another 1.2 million would arrive next week.
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Full IoL report
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| Cape Town: Plans to make city Wireless – 01/06/2010 |
Plans are afoot to make Cape Town a wirelessly connected city, says Western Cape premier Helen Zille. This is on the back of the city lighting up the first circuit of its fibre optic network. Speaking to ITWeb at the official opening of the Telkom/IEEE exhibition in the mother city yesterday, Zille said that IT was key to the Western Cape’s economic future and, while success has been seen on the municipal side, the provincial plan is to update the systems currently in use.
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Full Contact Industry reportContact
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| Traffic-stopping campaign to promote city – 01/06/2010 |
Joburg traffic is likely to slow to a snail’s pace when bikini-clad babes and hunks in board shorts, carrying surfboards, take to the streets to hand out bottles of sunblock at major intersections. The initiative is part of a 2010 World Cup marketing campaign spearheaded by the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and is aimed at convincing the city’s core domestic tourism market to travel to Durban from Gauteng as usual during the World Cup period. The campaign comes in the wake of the hotel occupancy crisis facing the accommodation industry in Durban and KZN.
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Full report in The Mercury
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| Port Elizabeth: Blatter hails Bay stadium – 31/05/2010 |
FIFA president Sepp Blatter this weekend gave the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium a big thumbs-up. The Herald reports Blatter visited the stadium in North End with a high-powered delegation including FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke, organising committee chairman Irvin Khoza and LOC CE Danny Jordaan. The municipality officially handed over the R2-billion stadium to FIFA, which means the soccer body assumes total operational responsibility for the stadium until the end of the tournament in July.
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Full Herald report
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| Cape Town: The best WC pitch – 28/05/2010 |
Cape Town Stadium has the best pitch of all the 2010 World Cup venues, FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke said yesterday. Speaking at the ceremonial handover of the 68 000-seater stadium to the world soccer body, Valcke said, ’It’s definitely the best pitch we have during all this World Cup, if you compare with all the other stadiums. I’m sorry for the other stadiums, but it’s a fact.’ He told Cape Town mayor Dan Plato that FIFA would take care of the stadium during the tournament and make sure it was ’as nice as it is today’ when it was handed back.
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Full Sowetan report
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| Top SA artists to headline Indawo’s PVA – 28/05/2010 |
The Indawo Public Viewing Area will host top South African musical talent and give football fans the opportunity to watch the biggest games of the tournament on a 40 square-metre screen, in a safe and festive atmosphere. The public and corporate hospitality village is the first of its kind in South Africa. The venue has two levels of top-class hospitality that can accommodate over 10 000 fans. The space will host fans for the first time on the opening day of the World Cup.
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Full Media Update report
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| Port Elizabeth: Caution urged over human trafficking emails – 27/05/2010 |
The police have advised residents to disregard emails about human trafficking that have been circulating in Port Elizabeth reports The Herald. Human trafficking detective Marcel van der Watt said most of the e-mails circulating in Port Elizabeth were false. He said a recent e-mail in circulation claimed that a group of Nigerians were linked to a syndicate that had locked children inside a container in the Port Elizabeth harbour. The email said, ’they found kids in a container at the harbour of which one was a 13-year-old boy from MTR Smit [Children’s Haven] that went missing … They [police and media] were told to keep quiet until after the 2010 soccer World Cup in order not to influence possible visitors!!!’
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Full Herald reportFull
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| Johannesburg: City to celebrate Africa – 26/05/2010 |
Starting from Africa Day, 25 May, and stretching through the 2010 World Cup, Johannesburg will celebrate the art, culture, music and literature of the continent through a variety of activities at venues across the city. According to a SouthAfrica.info report Africa will be celebrated through four major exhibitions at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. The main event will be an Afro-Cuban display entitled Without Masks opening on 25 May. The exhibition features work from 25 contemporary Cuban artists, curated by Orlando Hernandes. It will comprise 80 pieces, covering work from 1980 to 2009.
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Full SouthAfrica.info report
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| Cape Town: Road closures for WC games – 25/05/2010 |
BizCommunity.com reports that the eight World Cup games being held at the Cape Town Stadium on 11, 14, 18, 21, 24, 29 June and 3 and 6 July will necessitate the closure of a number of roads to accommodate fans. The public is asked to be aware of these and to plan their routes and travel times accordingly. ’We apologise for any inconvenience caused,’ says the city’s director of communication and 2010 spokesman, Pieter Cronje. ’The city asks the public to be aware of these and to plan their routes and travel times accordingly.’
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Full BizCommunity reportBizCommunity
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| Port Elizabeth: Coega’s wind farm underway – 25/05/2010 |
The first turbine of the Coega wind farm project in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality has been connected to the national power grid. The Herald reports the 25-turbine farm will produce electricity for the Mandela Bay stadium during the 2010 World Cup free of charge. Belgium-based Electrawinds has invested R1.2-billion in the project. Each of the 25 wind turbines will have a 1.8MW capacity, ’which translates into an annual yield of 5.7-million kilowatt-hours, enough energy to power about 1700 households.’
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Full Herald report
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| Durban: Millions lost in stadium shutdown – 24/05/2010 |
Fledgling businesses at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban were expecting to profit handsomely during the 2010 World Cup, closing for only a few days during the tournament, notes a report in The Mercury. However, they are now counting the costs after being told two weeks ago that they will have to shut up shop for eight weeks as from Monday. Security concerns have been blamed for the closure, costing several people their jobs and the businesses millions of rands in lost income.
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Full report in The Mercury
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| Port Elizabeth: Luxury liners won’t be docking in city- 24/05/2010 |
Port Elizabeth has missed out on the opportunity of hosting two luxury liners that were to have docked in its harbour during the 2010 World Cup according to The Herald. Some tour operators have been left licking their wounds after the trip was cancelled due to a lack of cabin bookings. The two cruise ships, the Noordam and the Westerdam, among the most luxurious in the world, were to have docked in Port Elizabeth, Durban and Cape Town and been used as bases for fans.
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Full Herald report
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| Cape Town: City’s township clean-up - 21/05/2010 |
Tensions are running high in Cape Town over the city’s apparent relocation of poor and homeless people to Blikkiesdorp on the Cape Flats - an attempt, critics charge, to hide grim reality from visiting World Cup fans. According to a Mail & Guardian reports that Blikkiesdorp was built by city authorities in Delft on the Cape Flats in 2008 and has since mushroomed. Its hundreds of corrugated-iron structures house about 3 000 people. Homeless people claim they have been forced off the streets and taken there in an attempt to ’clean up’ before kick-off next month.
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Full Mail and Guardian report
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| Port Elizabeth: Security concerns over stadium – 21/05/2010 |
With just 20 days to kick-off, security arrangements for the Nelson Mandela Bay World Cup stadium have been thrown into disarray, notes a Daily Dispatch report. According to highly placed sources, the LOC is preparing to oust the stadium’s nominated security provider, with police bracing for the possibility of taking over all security for the event.
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Full Daily Dispatch report
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