POLICE WILL be drafted in at World Cup stadia around South Africa where match security staff, who have been striking over low wages since Monday, insist on continuing with industrial action, according to tournament organisers.
The decision to recruit the South African police has come because of a worsening industrial dispute between stadium stewards and their employers, which began after a World Cup game in Durban last Sunday and spread to games in Cape Town on Monday and Johannesburg yesterday.
Security staff say they are only being paid about €20 for a 10-hour shift – a fraction of what their employers promised during dry runs for the World Cup games.
Fifa Local Organising Committee (LOC) spokesman Rich Mkhondo said yesterday they had asked the police to take over security services at Cape Town’s Green Point Stadium and Durban’s Moses Mabhida stadium until further notice.
“The 2010 Fifa World Cup Organising Committee South Africa, South African Police Service and Stallion Security Consortium have agreed that from now until further notice, police would provide security services at Green Point (Cape Town) and Durban stadiums.
“The request came after stewards left their posts following a wage dispute with their employer, Stallion Security Consortium,” Mr Mkhondo said in a statement.
Security staff in Cape Town abandoned their posts shortly before kick-off between Paraguay and Italy on Monday night, forcing organisers to draft in more than 1,000 trainee police from nearby training colleges to provide basic security and checks at the game.
In Durban on Sunday chaos erupted between police and security personnel after Germany’s victory over Australia, when hundreds of protesting stewards were forced from the stadium by armed riot police using rubber bullets and teargas.
Yesterday about two thousand of the security guards involved in the Durban protest were fired. Watched closely by riot police, they handed in their uniforms and received their disputed pay outside the stadium.
However, despite the fallout in Durban, hundreds of stewards also began to strike and protest outside Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg ahead of yesterday’s match between Brazil and North Korea.
LOC chief executive Danny Jordaan said the ongoing strikes were unacceptable, and action could be taken to ensure the rest of the World Cup was not affected.
“This is an employer/employee wage dispute. Although we have respect for workers’ rights, we find it unacceptable for them to disrupt match-day proceedings and will not hesitate to take action in such instances,” he said.
Meanwhile, doctors have warned the sound coming from a vuvuzela, the plastic horns being blown at World Cup matches across the country, is so loud that people in close proximity to it could suffer hearing damage.
French specialist Mireille Tardy told local reporters the horn’s high-level sound bursts “are catastrophic” for hearing, as they destroy the inner ears’ hair cells, of which there is a small and non-renewable number.
While most local fans are enamoured with the vuvuzela, foreign media and players have spoken out against the constant noise they create during matches, saying it takes away from, rather than adds to, the atmosphere at games.