World Cup venues on track but crime still a big concern

CAPE TOWN - A sleek new arrival has landed in Cape Town.

This steel oval with a stretched fibre-glass skin will become very familiar to television viewers all over the world next June.

It will provide the shot studio producers will want: an ultra-modern, glow-in-the-dark arena cast in the shadow of the undoubtedly spectacular Table Mountain.

The Green Point stadium, perhaps more than any of the stadiums being built for next year's soccer World Cup, is emblematic of the ambitions, contradictions and problems thrown up by preparations for the largest sporting event the continent has hosted.

Late to begin construction, dogged by planning disputes then labour strikes, it is now on course to finish ahead of schedule.

Craig Urquhart, who runs an independent news portal monitoring World Cup preparations, says after all the difficulties, the stadium is now "95 per cent there".

The roof will soon be on and the field which will host six group games and knockout matches up to the semifinal is being grown at a farm nearby.

This is the South Africa Fifa signed up for. A stone's throw away from the Victoria and Albert Dock complex with its modern shopping arcades and luxury apartments, this is the wealthiest city in sub-Saharan Africa.

But the country's high crime rates worry many potential visitors. Johannesburg looms large in this context, with two venues and some of the world's most frightening crime statistics and stories.

The United States Embassy last year warned that armed gangs were targeting new arrivals at Oliver Tambo International Airport. Spotters at the arrivals terminal would identify a victim, who would then be followed and either robbed at gunpoint outside the airport or at their hotel.

A huge security operation will shield World Cup visitors.

More than 41,000 new police officers will have been hired. Security corridors will be set up linking airports, hotels and venues. Cameras and spotter aircraft will, according to police chief Vish Naidoo, be able "to clearly see a beauty spot on your face".

Urquhart foresees a few minor incidents rather than a crisis: "There's going to be such a massive security blanket that there's not going to be a big issue."

Problems, if they do come, are likely to happen away from the obvious areas.

"As soon as you venture out of those corridors, there are no guarantees."

The real problem veteran observers are watching, though, is transport.

South Africa is 3.5 times the size of the previous host, Germany, and while six venues are within a few hours' drive of Johannesburg the other four are scattered from Durban on the east coast to Cape Town on the west.

With no functioning rail network and thousands of kilometres to go this will be the most daunting problem for do-it-yourself fans.

The solution is meant to be the Bus Rapid Transit system, but this has run into the formidable taxi operators' union, which won important concessions from the incoming President, Jacob Zuma.

And then there is the small matter of where to stay. Fifa has block-booked tens of thousands of the country's best hotels and on paper it appears there's a major shortfall.

Organisers are looking into back-up options from cruise ships to university hostels, but until the draw is completed in December much of this last-minute accommodation can't come online. Estimates of the number of foreign visitors expected range from 100,000 to 500,000.

- INDEPENDENT