Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

IT was squeaky-clean planes, pressed uniforms and a display of the best of the best as the police and army put on a display of their readiness to secure the national air space for the 2010 World Cup spectacle.

Dubbed “Exercise Shield 3”, the joint operations exercise, which began yesterday, will involve four stadiums in Gauteng and the North West and will be wrapped up on Friday.

Restrictions of 15 nautical miles for flights in certain air spaces are in place over stadiums in Joburg, Pretoria and Rustenburg.

According to SAPS Director David Garnett, senior operations planner for 2010, weekly discussions with Fifa staff and the Local Organising Committee (LOC) have given a thumbs-up to military and police preparedness training to date.

“We have hosted 141 major events since 1994 and we believe that we will be ready to ensure that visitors, fans and locals are safe and that they enjoy the games,” said Garnett.

The SANDF and SAPS simulation exercise at Swartkops airbase yesterday was the first of its kind for the national joint operations structures. It featured a staged hijacking of an aircraft and showed fighter planes forcing the mock hijacked plane to land before securing the release of hostages.

On board the Cessna were radio personalities Gareth Cliff and Darren “Whackhead” Simpson, who played the part of hostages.

In the simulation the dog unit and bomb disposal units, with remote-controlled robots in tow, were on hand as a show of strength.

While the SAPS said the cost of exercises could not be accurately quantified, Garnett said: “It is a billion or two.”

Garnett was cagey about specific threats identified, but he did mention forged tickets, hooliganism and organised crime as some of the key issues that had topped the agenda.

“We review the threats on an ongoing basis and we assess what is happening in the world at any time that could impact on our preparations,” he said.

However, it is the general fear of crime and personal safety that will probably keep tourists from making the trip down south for the Confederation Cup, which kicks off in June, or for the World Cup next year.

Garnett acknowledged this but said about 40 000 police officers would be deployed during the World Cup and that key tourist areas, from the Kruger National Park to taxi ranks, would receive an extra look-in.

“We will step up our operational resources to ensure that tourists do feel safe and that they have a safe and enjoyable World Cup,” he said.

The operational exercises, such as the one at Swartkops, will move to Mpumalanga next and then to KwaZulu-Natal, after which a national review will be done before the Confederations Cup.