A promise that is of great concern to me is the LOC’s commitment to install 60000 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at host cities and stadiums countrywide. We are way off that target, which means safety and security authorities and metropolitan councils need to rapidly pick up the pace of their roll-out of CCTV infrastructure.
It is a fait accompli that a foreign visitor will become a victim of crime during the World Cup. Just one appalling act of cruelty by a criminal against a foreigner has the potential to utterly negate any positive spin-offs from the World Cup.
Only a few thousand additional police officers will be hired prior to the event, making SA largely reliant on electronic eyes and ears to secure the safety of our visitors next year. CCTV cameras are known to prevent all categories of crime, from petty pickpocketing to murder.
Ordinary citizens need to put pressure on the metropolitan councils , which promised to spend tens of millions of rands on CCTV infrastructure in preparation for the World Cup. The City of Cape Town, for example, said it would spend R10m on installing 24-hour CCTV cameras along the Grand Parade and the fan mile for the World Cup and R2m addressing gaps in CCTV coverage of the central business district. Do we know how far Cape Town has progressed with those plans?
Source:
CCTV vital to police 2010 crowds
Business Day
April 9, 2009
