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PREPARING SOUTH AFRICA FOR THE WORLD |
An intensive joint exercise between the SA Police Service and the Defence Force is underway to ensure that South Africa is on target with its security preparations for the Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup. Project 2010 spoke to SA Police Services Director Sally De Beer...  Exercise Shield 3 is an ongoing initiative aimed at preparing all the 2010 host cities. Are you satisfied with the progress? The exercise started of on a very small scale in Polokwane and then proceeded to Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and now is being conducted in Gauteng and the North West Province. The exercise has been very successful, leaving a legacy in each Province so far in terms of coordination and command-and-control. The national assets taking part and directing the exercises from all departments have been able to develop from lessons learned and to take that expertise on to the next exercise. South Africa is new to hosting an event of this magnitude. Does this concern you? The SAPS is not actually new to securing major events, in fact we were so successful in securing the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 that the United Nations used our security plan as a blue print for international major events. We also successfully secured the Rugby World Cup 1995 and the Cricket World Cup 2003. We were invited to the West Indies to deploy police officials from South Africa during their 2007 Cricket World Cup, which we did, in recognition of our expertise in this field. How much to you rely on the hosts of other mega sporting events to assist you with your security preparation? We are constantly liaising with other countries to gain from their expertise and teams have visited several other countries, such as Germany, China, the UK and many other European countries. There is very good cooperation between SA and these countries and we envisage having at least two police officials from each playing country present during the FIFA 2010 World Cup present as liaison officials. In terms of our neighbouring states, are you satisfied with the levels of co-operation with regards to security preparations? There is a coordinated effort between S A and our neighbouring countries and the cooperation is excellent. more interviews...
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