Politicians and trade unions have slammed the World Cup''s Local Organising Committee for "organisational breakdown" after police were forced to enact emergency plans to secure five of the country''s stadiums. Current Font Size: Danny Jordaan ''LOC and Stallion are still raking in millions''

Yesterday, the cabinet approved the police''s plan to secure the stadiums after security stewards contracted to Stallion Security at Durban''s Moses Mabhida, Cape Town stadium, and Johannesburg''s Ellis Park went on strike over wages.

Soccer City, also secured by Stallion, is also now under police control.

Western Cape Cosatu head Tony Ehrenreich said: "Cosatu has offered to assist to resolve the dispute, even though these workers are not Cosatu members, but this is being rejected by the security bosses because they have government doing their work for them.

"Neither the LOC nor Stallion are responding to the crisis but they are still raking in millions. "

National police commissioner Bheki Cele yesterday confirmed a massive stadium security shake-up involving the recruitment of 3500 police interns, who will assume control of the stadiums and the International Broadcast Centre in Johannesburg.

Cele said: "The police have taken over the stadiums that have been abandoned. If anybody else disrupts any other stadium we are ready in the shortest possible time.

"There shall be no disruptions of 2010 Fifa World Cup matches in South Africa. "

The problem, Ehrenreich said, began a week before the tournament but security companies "did nothing about it except for threaten people".

"Security guards who are doing the exact same job are being paid different rates because there was no amount written in their contracts.

"Security guards raised their problems a week before, but the security bosses said to them, ''take it or leave it''," he said.

Ehrenreich said that in contracts with the LOC, security companies "stipulated that guards should be paid R550 a day, but we know since they went on strike they were getting between R190 and R205".

Cosatu accused security companies of "sabotaging" World Cup safety.

"The security companies at the stadiums have been exposed as corrupt and violating the LOC tender process as well as SA labour legislation," it said in a statement.

Yesterday, DA police spokesman Dianne Kohler Barnard said Linda Mti, LOC security chief and former prisons commissioner, "must be held to account".

She said a number of security stewards were "only hired a week before the World Cup started - not leaving enough time for vetting - and guards were unclear on what they would be paid".

Mti could not be reached for comment.

Leading security company Pasco Risk Management yesterday issued a security alert in which it claimed the appointment of private security staff for the World Cup had been "highly controversial" from the start.

"An additional concern is that the deployment of police to the stadiums could leave SAPS vulnerable on match days to other security threats," it said.

But Cele said yesterday crime appeared to have reduced during the World Cup period. "It is not just us saying that - even independent bodies are saying that. "

The SA National Defence Force said it was fully equipped to support police.

"The SANDF is supporting the SAPS with vehicle control points, road blocks, cordon and search, crowd control, assistance to disaster management and vehicle/foot patrols in the area of responsibility," said spokesman Captain Llwellyn van Staden.

Jun 18, 2010 12:14 AM | By SALLY EVANS and BOBBY JORDAN - Times Live

Link to original article on timeslive.co.za

Article featured in The Times, Friday 18th June 2010