Ramatsiyi Moholoa

Ramatsiyi Moholoa

The 2010 World Cup Local Organising Committee has taken over some of the crowd-pulling Absa Premiership games, including the Soweto derby.

This is part of the ongoing training by the top brass at Safa House in Nasrec to prepare South Africans for the Confederations Cup and World Cup.

"The LOC will be in charge of all critical aspects during those games, like security and protocol," said Irvin Khoza, the LOC's chairperson, yesterday.

"We are stepping up the training of all people roped in to ensure South Africa delivers on its promise of hosting these events successfully."

The 5 000 Confederations Cup and 15 000 World Cup volunteers recruited by the LOC will also be involved in these category-A games.

The first game where the LOC will be in charge will be the potentially explosive clash between Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns next Wednesday night.

Subsequent to that, the LOC will take charge of the Soweto derby when Pirates take on perennial rivals Kaizer Chiefs on April 18.

The derby is Scheduled for Ellis Park, but the venue is likely to change.

Sowetan has it on good authority that there is a big event being organised for the nearby Johannesburg Stadium the following day.

Khoza said: "What I can tell you is that there is a possibility that the venue might change.

"We will be in a position to make an announcement soon if there will be a change, there are still some few things that need to be sorted out."

Meanwhile, Sowetan has learnt that the training of volunteers for the Confederations Cup will start on March 13.

All the four Confederations Cup host cities - Johannesburg, Mangaung, Rustenburg and Tshwane - will be conducting their own training.

The LOC venue offices in all the host cities will start phoning and writing letters today to successful applicants for the volunteer programme.

Volunteers for the Confederations Cup will be South Africans but for for the World Cup, the LOC will recruit people worldwide.