Posted in News on Sep 30, 2004.
Police spokesman Superintendent Vishnu Naidoo said strict
security plans were in place for the match as well as all other
parallel events, such as team training. He said police from the
Durban North and South areas were involved in the operation as well
as metro traffic police, disaster management, match organisers and
private security.
According to Naidoo the "double perimeter stategy" was highly
successful at previous matches and on Saturday, only fans with
tickets will be allowed to pass through the first perimeter. They
will then be searched for "things which can be proved to be illegal
from a glass bottle to a gun" at the inner perimeter.
One of the event organisers, Felicia Ntisa, confirmed that the
teams will land in Durban on Thursday morning and at midday both
Chiefs and Supersport would take part in a bus parade through
Durban city centre, Umlazi, Lamontville and KwaMashu.
According to Ntisa the stadium gates will be opened at 8am on
Saturday and spectators will be treated to live entertainment like
Zulu and gumboot dancing as well as live music performances by
Brothers of Peace, Trompies and Kabelo.
Meanwhile, Ethekwini mayor Obed Mlaba said although none of the
finalists was from KwaZulu Natal, he will definitely be at the
match on Saturday. "I will be very objective and I will fully enjoy
the beautiful game because I won't be worried if my team will win,"
he said.
He added that during the campaigns for both the 2006 and 2010
Soccer World Cup bids, Durban "not only proved it was able to fill
stadiums but the enthusiasm outside the stadiums was out of this
world".
"The city needs a super stadium with a bigger capacity and we
could do for one single investment into the province from all three
tiers of government," said Mlaba.
"In the past 10 years we have not seen this sort of investment
in Durban and it is time they realise that KZN is part of South
Africa.
"Other provinces have an appeals court or a parliament but we
don't have even have major government institution in KZN," he
complained.
He said people in KZN had proved that with sport and other kinds
of tourism it attracted people from as far afield as Lesotho and
Zimbabwe.
The SAA Supa 8 final kicks off at 3.15pm on Saturday.