Border delays: South Africa's Achilles Heel

| Tuesday June 15, 2010 00:00

 

The World Cup kicked-off in Johannesburg, South Africa on Friday without any major glitches. In fact, the host nation has hailed the tournament's opening days as largely successful. South Africa claimed a major security success when it staged an incident-free match involving the US and England, which was considered a medium to high security risk encounter.

While the matches have gone on without major hiccups, it is at the country's entry points that visitors are getting nightmares.

Thousands of Batswana, who flocked to Rustenburg on Saturday to watch the epic encounter, only the second official tie between the two world economic powerhouses, had to endure long waits at the Tlokweng Border post. It took the Mmegi crew nearly three hours to cross over. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that Botswana's old passports are not machine- readable.

South Africa has scrapped the use of Emergency Travel Documents and scans passports and this has proved to be a nightmare for travellers.

The swelling crowd at the Tlokweng border had to queue for more than three hours before immigration formalities were concluded. 'The expectation was that South Africa will be ready to handle large volumes of visitors coming for the World Cup, but disappointingly, this is not the case,' a dejected fan said. 'South Africa has been charming the world about coming to the World Cup. We have responded to their call and we expected better service at entry points,' the fan added.

This was the view shared by Batswana who flew into Johannesburg for the opening ceremony and match at the state-of-the-art, Soccer City Stadium. Officers handling hordes of fans were not apologetic and blamed the non-readable passports for the delays. Security is seemingly tight at the Tlokweng border although there were no thorough searches on vehicles. However, there is an increased presence of police officers.

On arrival in Rustenburg, there are clear signs of where one should go and the World Cup fever is evident.Volunteers man road intersections to give directions to visitors.  

To ensure that security is not compromised, fans who do not have tickets or access cards are not allowed on routes leading to the match venue, the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Phokeng. The high profile match between the US and England provided a stern test to South Africa's security systems. There were reports leading to the Saturday clash that terrorists were targeting the match. South Africa responded by deploying police officers in virtually all the Rustenburg streets.

House owners made a killing as they rented out their rooms to desperate visitors because all accommodation facilities were fully booked months ahead of the biggest showpiece in FIFA's calendar. Residents charged fees ranging from R20 to R50 for parking a vehicle in their yard for safe keeping. The fan park, popularised during the 2006 World Cup in Germany, did not attract many spectators. The soccer field at   Desen Park was not teeming with supporters although the atmosphere was electric.

A giant screen beamed all the three games played on Saturday. There was a large contingent of travelling US and English supporters who gathered early for the late evening clash. They were joined by a vocal crowd of Batswana at the fan park. A handful of the Botswana fans made it to the stadium.

Despite the carnival atmosphere, it was not a huge crowd. It remained that way until the end of the US-England clash. The English enjoyed more supporters as evidenced by the rapturous applause when captain Steven Gerard ran onto Emile Heskey's pass and slid it past US goalkeeper, Tim Howard for the opener. Generally, the World Cup promises much economic bounty for South Africa, with estimated revenue of R4billion largely accruing from the millions of fans who will visit the host nation during the month-long tournament.