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THE chief of police in Cape Town, the venue for England’s second match in the World Cup, has warned any supporters intent on disrupting the tournament that they will be herded onto prison trains, tried on the spot and transported to remote detention centres.
In an uncompromising response to the prospect of street brawls and antisocial behaviour, the South African authorities plan to “face down” unruly fans with rubber bullets and lock them in cells on the trains. They will then be moved overnight to other parts of South Africa.
“People might say we are treating them like cattle, but if they behave like animals then we will give no quarter,” said Rob Young, the Cape Town police chief.
“Football hooligans might come here thinking they are tough, but we are the toughest gang in town.”
Between 50,000 and 80,000 England fans are expected to travel to South Africa, the largest contingent of any country. After England’s first match in Rustenburg against the United States on June 12, many will arrive in Cape Town early for a game against Algeria on June 18. They are expected to stay on afterwards until a tie against Slovenia in Port Elizabeth on June 23.
“The message I send to any England fans thinking about starting trouble is simple,” Young said. “We police the Third World every single day. Do you think we are intimidated by a bunch of drunken boys in football jerseys?
“We are at war in the townships. It is a front line where our officers get shot at and killed all the time. What can a drunk football hooligan do?”
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, South Africa’s home affairs minister, revealed last week that screening programmes had already been put in place to identify potential hooligans from England, Germany and Argentina, the three nations deemed to pose the biggest threat.
The decision to incarcerate trouble-makers on trains is partly a response to the overcrowding in South Africa’s prison system. It has capacity for 115,118 inmates but currently houses 164,706.
Teboho Motseki, the country’s chief deputy commissioner of police, told a parliamentary committee that the move was to create excess capacity “in the event of overflow”. But observers point out that the trains may also prevent many foreign supporters from being confined in some of the world’s toughest prisons, where gang rape and HIV are said to be common.
The cells are in special carriages attached to Metroline trains. With temperatures approaching freezing at night during the Western Cape winter, miscreants will find them disagreeable.
“They certainly won’t have a comfortable bed for the night,” said Nowellan Petersen, a Cape Town police spokesman. “The dimensions speak for themselves, perhaps 10 fans to a cell.
“ If there are real problems, serious issues, there will be standing room only and the fans can think of it as a one-stop shop. We will open the case against you and put you in jail on the train while you are travelling to another location to be locked up.”
In Rustenburg hooligans will face “justice buses” — mobile police stations with holding cells and an on-board magistrates’ court. Troublemakers could be arrested, tried and convicted within minutes of committing an offence.
Chief Inspector Vincent Mogopudi said: “We have many systems in place to ensure that people do not get away with causing trouble and our special bus is one of those.”
It is understood that two justice buses capable of holding 40 prisoners will patrol the streets of Rustenburg, close to where Fabio Capello, the England coach, is basing his squad.
The French gendarmerie has been training South African officers in crowd control and undercover British police will help to gauge the mood of the massed ranks of England fans.
The latest water cannons have been purchased from the United States. The predominant weapons, however, will be brute police force and rubber bullets.
“Saturation coverage,” is how Superintendent Vish Naidoo, spokesman for the South African police service, describes the approach.
“We will see a very heavy presence of officers armed with rubber- bullet-firing weapons. We have purchased an extra 40 helicopters and 100 highperformance BMWs on top of the thousands of additional men on the ground, totalling some 40,000 officers.
“For the tournament there will also be more magistrates, judges and courts on duty, including magistrates on trains.”
More than 3,000 England fans are expected to be stopped from travelling to South Africa in the coming weeks because they are subject to banning orders. They will have to give British police their passports before the tournament starts.
Those who slip the net risk being turned back on arrival and any who manage to get into South Africa could be identified by British police spotters.
“Our message to anyone looking to cause trouble is blunt,” said Young in Cape Town.
“If you stare us down you will face our plastic bullets and water cannons. If that doesn’t stop you we will haul you into prison trains. Look out the window here in Cape Town across to some of the most violent communities on earth. That is our beat, our back yard. That should tell you how tough we are.”
In an uncompromising response to the prospect of street brawls and antisocial behaviour, the South African authorities plan to “face down” unruly fans with rubber bullets and lock them in cells on the trains. They will then be moved overnight to other parts of South Africa.
“People might say we are treating them like cattle, but if they behave like animals then we will give no quarter,” said Rob Young, the Cape Town police chief.
“Football hooligans might come here thinking they are tough, but we are the toughest gang in town.”
Between 50,000 and 80,000 England fans are expected to travel to South Africa, the largest contingent of any country. After England’s first match in Rustenburg against the United States on June 12, many will arrive in Cape Town early for a game against Algeria on June 18. They are expected to stay on afterwards until a tie against Slovenia in Port Elizabeth on June 23.
“The message I send to any England fans thinking about starting trouble is simple,” Young said. “We police the Third World every single day. Do you think we are intimidated by a bunch of drunken boys in football jerseys?
“We are at war in the townships. It is a front line where our officers get shot at and killed all the time. What can a drunk football hooligan do?”
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, South Africa’s home affairs minister, revealed last week that screening programmes had already been put in place to identify potential hooligans from England, Germany and Argentina, the three nations deemed to pose the biggest threat.
The decision to incarcerate trouble-makers on trains is partly a response to the overcrowding in South Africa’s prison system. It has capacity for 115,118 inmates but currently houses 164,706.
Teboho Motseki, the country’s chief deputy commissioner of police, told a parliamentary committee that the move was to create excess capacity “in the event of overflow”. But observers point out that the trains may also prevent many foreign supporters from being confined in some of the world’s toughest prisons, where gang rape and HIV are said to be common.
The cells are in special carriages attached to Metroline trains. With temperatures approaching freezing at night during the Western Cape winter, miscreants will find them disagreeable.
“They certainly won’t have a comfortable bed for the night,” said Nowellan Petersen, a Cape Town police spokesman. “The dimensions speak for themselves, perhaps 10 fans to a cell.
“ If there are real problems, serious issues, there will be standing room only and the fans can think of it as a one-stop shop. We will open the case against you and put you in jail on the train while you are travelling to another location to be locked up.”
In Rustenburg hooligans will face “justice buses” — mobile police stations with holding cells and an on-board magistrates’ court. Troublemakers could be arrested, tried and convicted within minutes of committing an offence.
Chief Inspector Vincent Mogopudi said: “We have many systems in place to ensure that people do not get away with causing trouble and our special bus is one of those.”
It is understood that two justice buses capable of holding 40 prisoners will patrol the streets of Rustenburg, close to where Fabio Capello, the England coach, is basing his squad.
The French gendarmerie has been training South African officers in crowd control and undercover British police will help to gauge the mood of the massed ranks of England fans.
The latest water cannons have been purchased from the United States. The predominant weapons, however, will be brute police force and rubber bullets.
“Saturation coverage,” is how Superintendent Vish Naidoo, spokesman for the South African police service, describes the approach.
“We will see a very heavy presence of officers armed with rubber- bullet-firing weapons. We have purchased an extra 40 helicopters and 100 highperformance BMWs on top of the thousands of additional men on the ground, totalling some 40,000 officers.
“For the tournament there will also be more magistrates, judges and courts on duty, including magistrates on trains.”
More than 3,000 England fans are expected to be stopped from travelling to South Africa in the coming weeks because they are subject to banning orders. They will have to give British police their passports before the tournament starts.
Those who slip the net risk being turned back on arrival and any who manage to get into South Africa could be identified by British police spotters.
“Our message to anyone looking to cause trouble is blunt,” said Young in Cape Town.
“If you stare us down you will face our plastic bullets and water cannons. If that doesn’t stop you we will haul you into prison trains. Look out the window here in Cape Town across to some of the most violent communities on earth. That is our beat, our back yard. That should tell you how tough we are.”
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