Cape Town stadium to revise traffic plan

Stadium operator Sail/Stade de France and the City of Cape Town say they will go back to the drawing board to devise a comprehensive traffic management plan for the third World Cup test event next month.

This comes after traffic ground to a halt around the Cape Town Stadium precinct on Saturday, causing thousands of spectators to miss the curtain-raiser match between the SA Legends and the International 10s.

The match was followed by the main game between the Vodacom Stormers and Boland.

Motorists with tickets for VIP parking waited up to an hour to get into the main parkade because sniffer dogs checked every vehicle entering the stadium precinct for explosives and narcotics.

"This is a joke," said one spectator. "It takes each car 50 minutes to get in and we are only 40 000 spectators. What about 68 000 for the World Cup?"

Sail/Stade de France executive director Morne du Plessis said a comprehensive traffic management plan would be crucial for the next test event, a religious gathering of about 60 000 people on March 22.

"Traffic was the biggest challenge," he said. "The European seating arrangement (a particular method of seat numbering) is also a bit complicated, but people will get used to it."

Four people were arrested for being drunk during Saturday's events.

Three City of Cape Town units were involved in the policing operation.

The metro police arrested one person for driving under the influence of alcohol and issued 20 traffic fines amounting to R5 300.

A 27-year-old man was also fined R200 in terms of a city by-law for allegedly setting off a firecracker in the stadium after the match.

The city's traffic services arrested one person for reckless and negligent driving and issued 97 traffic and parking fines.

The city's law enforcement unit issued 63 fines totalling R46 750 for parking offences and illegal trading.

It also confiscated goods worth R50 000 from illegal traders.

Two warnings were issued for contravening city by-laws.

Stadium paramedics were also kept busy.

A man in his mid-60s collapsed and died after suffering complete cardiac arrest soon after entering the stadium, while another spectator was treated for chest pains at the stadium medical centre.

Dr Wayne Smith, head of the stadium's 2010 medical emergency team, said several attempts to resuscitate the man at the stadium failed.

He was then taken to the nearby Somerset Hospital, where he was declared dead.

Cape Argus

Posted at 10:09AM Feb 09, 2010 by Editor in Commercial  |