/ 17 June 2010

Police fire stun grenade at World Cup guard protest

Police Fire Stun Grenade At World Cup Guard Protest

South African police fired a stun grenade and rubber bullets on Thursday to break up a protest by security guards demanding payment after walking off the job at Cape Town’s World Cup stadium.

Several people were arrested as police dispersed 200 protesters from outside the offices of Stallion Security, the company contracted to provide security at Cape Town’s stadium.

“They were warned that it’s an illegal gathering. They were given time to disperse and they didn’t. After several attempts we used a stun grenade and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd,” said police spokesman Andre Traut.

“A number of security guards were then arrested for [the] illegal gathering.”

Police were forced to take over security at four World Cup stadiums after wildcat strikes over wages by stewards.

Cops take over security
The Cape Town group, who stopped work three hours before title holders Italy took on Paraguay on Monday, were at the company offices to collect wages for work done during the tournament, e-news reported.

Police announced on Wednesday that they have taken over security at Soccer City and Ellis Park in Johannesburg, as well as Cape Town and Durban stadiums.

“If anybody else disrupts any other stadium we are ready, in the shortest possible time, to take over that stadium,” police commissioner Bheki Cele said on Thursday.

“There shall be no disruption of 2010 Fifa World Cup matches here in South Africa under the guide of the South African Police Service.”

South Africa’s World Cup chief Danny Jordaan told journalists on Thursday that he was satisfied that the strike disturbances were under control.

Organisors had planned for scenarios for police to deal with challenges in a short space of time, he said.

“I think they’ve done an incredible job. In Cape town within three hours, everything was in place and the game started on time,” he said.

“We just had another meeting with police yesterday and we’re satisfied everything is in place.”

Police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to break up a protest which broke out in the early hours on Monday by about 400 Durban stadium staff protesting what they said was a pay cut from R250 to R190 per day.

On Tuesday, hundreds of stewards staged a walk-out at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park stadium before Brazil’s match against North Korea.

‘Sabotaging safety’
Meanwhile, the Congress of South African Trade Unions said the conduct of security companies was sabotaging safety at the tournament.

“Cosatu condemns conduct of security bosses that sabotages safety of World Cup,” Cosatu’s Western Cape secretary Tony Ehrenreich said in a statement.

“This conduct by the security companies is now being sanctioned by South African government, who is bailing them out with the SA Police Services.”

He said Cosatu’s offer to help resolve the problem had been rejected by the companies.

Ehrenreich said Stallion Security guards were working at Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg when 43 people died during a stampede on April 11 2001.

The investigation found one of the 14 factors that led to the disaster was corruption on the part of certain members of the security personnel. A total of 62 000 tickets for the Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs derby had been printed, but an inquiry into the disaster found about 80 000 people had attended the match. – Sapa