City announces child safety plan for soccer World Cup festivities

By Ofentse Mokae
03 June 2010

With just a week before kick off to the 2010 FIFA World Cup the City of Cape Town is implementing a comprehensive child safety plan.

The city says the plan will dovetail with the holiday activity programme being presented across the Metropole in all 23 Sub-council areas.

“For the duration of the World Cup, the plan provides for six ‘lost and found’ rooms located at the Cape Town Stadium, the Fan Fest, and all four fan jols, staffed by eight trained social workers and child care practitioners,” said the city’s Pam Naidoo.

The city says it is acutely aware that children will be particularly vulnerable at large gatherings during the football extravaganza and thus their safety and security is crucial to the staging of a successful event.

Naidoo says in addition, all children - whether they are part of a group or just one of a family- will be tagged by the city’s volunteers who will be deployed at the entrances of the respective event sites.

“The volunteers will direct families or groups to the tagging facility where the details of each child and accompanying adult will be registered on a database. Unaccompanied children will be redirected to the nearest schools holiday programme,” says Naidoo.

The plan has been developed in a joint effort between the city, provincial government and local organisations.