We are going to host a successful and secured 2010 Soccer World Cup
In almost five months from now, the biggest show on earth will begin in our country, the FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup. It is the biggest event of our time and provides a global platform on which the nations and peoples of the world come together to reaffirm our common humanity and destiny.
The Soccer World Cup creates the opportunity, so important in our troubled universe, for all of us to experience the reality that we belong to one human family, regardless of race, colour, gender, age, political and religious belief, and country or continent of origin.
In 2004, when the FIFA Executive Committee decided to award the rights to South Africa to host this spectacular event, the decision was based on our demonstrable ability, commitments and guarantees made that we will deliver the best Soccer World Cup ever and the first on the African soil.
Our belief and confidence was informed by the experience that we have gained in hosting major national and international events since the outbreak of democracy in 1994. Amongst the many events we have hosted since then are the following:
- Webb Ellis Rugby World Cup in 1995.
- Soccer African Cup of Nations in 1996
- Non-Aligned Movement Summit in 1998
- All Africa Games in 1999
- World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002.
- Cricket World Cup in 2003.
- In 2009, we hosted the first Confederation Cup on the African soil.
- The British and Irish Lions Tour,
- The Tri-Nations Cup, and
- The lucrative Indian Premier league which was moved to South African for safety reasons.
During the WSSD, which was attended by more than 37 000 international delegates, South Africa pioneered a security model that has been acknowledged as a new international benchmark - and has since been adopted by the United Nations as its model for large events. This is the model we have been applying in all the major events. South Africa also contributed to the security plan for the 2007 Cricket World Cup, with the SAPS being asked to help train police in the Caribbean. We hosted these events with major success confounding critics. There was no incident of any security breach.