Date: 08/05/2009

Source: Department of Health

Title: SA: Sefularo: Briefing by the Deputy Minister of Health on South Africa's health readiness to host the Confederation Cup and FIFA 2010 soccer events

It gives me great pleasure to be here this morning to brief you, the nation and indeed the world as a whole of our country's health readiness to host two of the world's biggest sporting events.

Of course this briefing takes place in the context of the H1N1 influenza currently gripping some parts of the world. It's encouraging that so far our country and the region have not had a single confirmed case. Apart from this reality, I wish to take this opportunity to once again reconfirm our preparedness in the event that we had an outbreak. Officials from the department and Dr Ramathesele briefed me about the media briefing workshop that took place yesterday on this issue and I will therefore not want to dwell any further on it, safe for me to say: We are ready!

As most of us know by know, the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup will be taking place in our country just a few weeks from now with the World Cup taking place in about 12 months time.

It is important to mention and state the fact that all of the work that we have done so far and that we will be doing moving forward is based on the government guarantees as provided by the Health Ministry of the Republic of South Africa.

This guarantee relates to the infrastructure of the South African National Health System with specific regard to:
* availability of a comprehensive medical service including a 24 hour emergency medical treatment, and
* disaster management.

The requirement here is that this entire infrastructure and will be at the disposal of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in the cities where the games will be played. This applies to both foreign and local delegations including the FIFA delegation and representatives, SAFA, players, management and coaching staff, foreign and local spectators, media, sponsors, officials, administrators and the small business sector servicing the spectators at the respective venues.

In terms of our area of responsibility as a Department, I wish to share with you some of the key strategic areas that we are dealing with here: Environmental Health, Port Health, Communicable Disease Control, Health Promotion, Emergency Medical services, Forensic pathology, Forensic medicine and Biochemical.
In the context of the Confederations Cup taking place in a few days time now, I wish to share with you the state of readiness especially in as far as it relates to these following areas:
* command and control
* communicable Disease
* EMS
* environmental health
* forensic pathology
* hospitals and
* port health.

The three provinces that will be hosting the Confederation Cup games (Free State, Gauteng and North West) generally report a satisfactory level of readiness in each instance covering 90%. As we approach the games, even more time and effort is committed in these various areas so that as the first whistle is blown, we would have covered every area.

Generally, we are happy with our progress so far and we have not received any concern from FIFA suggesting otherwise. If FIFA wasn't happy about our progress or didn't have confidence on our ability to deliver, I am sure you in the media would have been the first ones to know! This point was articulated well by Dr Michel D'Hooghe after the FIFA Medical Workshop held in February this year when he said: "Never ever have I seen such as advanced preparation so far ahead of the FIFA World Cup. Your dedication and expertise is impressive." Dr D'Hooghe is the Chairperson of the FIFA Medical Committee.

It is also important to note that the department has scheduled provincial visits over the next two weeks to assist provinces with outstanding issues and ensure that the necessary steps are being implemented in order for plans to be effectively executed.

The last two preparations work group meetings are scheduled for 14 and 28 May 2009 with deployment being commencing from 30 May 2009.

Moving forward, we are going to be monitoring the hosting provinces very closely just to make sure that they tighten up on whatever loose ends that may still be there.

Thank you very much.