Although South Africa has successfully hosted a number of sport events (Rugby World Cup in 1995, African Cup of Nations in 1996, the All African Games in 1999 and the Cricket World Cup in 2003) as well as other events, such as the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 and the Non-Aligned Movement summit in 1998, that have attracted regional and international attention, hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2010 is clearly different –one only needs to take domestic and international attention and interest into consideration–. On a national level, hosting the event has called for a revamping of infrastructure, including the building of new stadiums. All events are confronted with different security threats. One cannot, for instance, compare the Olympic Games with a political event, or even hosting the FIFA World Cup with hosting the Cricket World Cup, mentioning two sports events that have been targeted or against which terrorist attacks have been planned. Based on this, disregarding the potential threat of terrorism of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa because it has never been a target of a major terrorist attack will be a mistake.Download here
Anneli Botha is a Senior Researcher on Terrorism at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), Pretoria, South Africa