The City of Mangaung will engage with German consultancy Invent to help them in their preparations for the World Cup.

The City of Mangaung will engage with German consultancy Invent to help them in their preparations for the World Cup.

This follows a seven-day visit to Germany by a high-powered delegation led by Gertrude Mothupi, executive mayor of the municipality.

The agency was involved in the overall preparations for both the 2006 Confederations Cup and World Cup in Germany.

During the visit, the delegation focussed on three cities - Liepzig, Munich and Stuttgart.

George Mohlakoana, the city's World Cup chief executive, said: "Invent will assist us as part of the partnership between South Africa and Germany.

"We obviously need help from the experts in Germany. We have identified public transport as one of the areas where we need help. During our visit, we were informed that Liepzig had huge challenges in reconfiguring public transport for the 2006 World Cup."

Mohlakoana said they will try to get experts who were involved in developing and implementing Liepzig's transport plan sent to Mangaung.

"The same thing will also happen to Stuttgart in the field of hospitality and tourism. They had an aggressive marketing strategy," he said.

"As for Munich, the city primarily put focus on their needs in terms of the legacy projects, which will also be helpful for us."