Mpumalanga tourist guides preparing for 2010 World Cup

Tourist guides in Mpumalanga are being trained to speak foreign languages and will be ready by the time South Africa hosts the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Provincial economic development and planning MEC William Lubisi says his department has created a training programme that includes foreign language courses, the retraining of existing guides to meet the new challenges and awareness campaigns aimed at tour operators and other product owners. Thirty-three black local tour guides have already been trained to speak French, and will next be learning Chinese, German and Portuguese.