A total of 56 special courts dedicated to deal with 2010 FIFA World Cup offences were set to start operating on Monday, the justice ministry said.

"The dedicated courts start operating today [Monday] and will wrap up business two weeks after the tournament ended," said justice spokesperson Tlali Tlali.

The intention was to "avoid burdening existing court rolls with FIFA tournament cases".

Any offence related to the tournament, involving tourists or South Africans, would be dealt with by these courts.

"There will be no leniency and no different standards will apply."

A budget of R45-million had been set aside for the implementation of the project.

Some 1140 officials and 93 foreign language interpreters will be deployed to the courts.

Initially, only 54 dedicated courts had been planned but two additional courts had been set up in KwaZulu-Natal to deal with the jurisdiction around the new King Shaka airport, said Tlali Tlali.

The courts will operate at existing jurisdictional facilities and there will be two magistrates for each dedicated court.

Court proceedings will take place in two shifts - a day shift from 8.30am to 4.30pm and a night shift from 4.30pm to 11pm.

There will be dedicated courts in all provinces, with Gauteng having the most - 14 district courts and eight regional courts.