South Africa: Most unsafe World Cup ever?

(AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

JOHANNESBURG – At some point people have to realize this World Cup is not safe, that South Africa, in its valiant attempt to host soccer’s biggest tournament, is unable to guarantee a team won’t be attacked or that fans won’t be harmed in the streets, their hotels or the stands.

The latest hole to appear in the porous security appeared in Cape Town, when a fan left the stands at the end of England’s match with Algeria, walked through several lines of security wearing his England shirt and right into the team’s locker room only moments after Princes Harry and William had departed. The fan encountered David Beckham, who eventually encouraged him to leave, but not before exposing to all involved – the police, FIFA and private security firms – that they are unable to protect much of anything at the World Cup.

After walking into the locker room and confronting the English players, the fan was cornered and marched out of the locker room and escorted out of the stadium.

And this was supposed to be one of the most secure matches, one of 11 identified by authorities before the tournament as having the highest risk of terrorist attack. But apparently all you have to do to gain admission to the inner sanctum, the most protected place at the World Cup, is to wear an England jersey. You’ll slip right in.

Who knows where to direct the blame? As with every other incident here, from the near stampede at a friendly between Nigeria and North Korea the week before the World Cup to the robberies of several visiting journalists to riots involving striking workers, nobody wants to accept responsibility. They point fingers, they argue, they make statements and they call press conferences. And as they do, safety deteriorates. It’s to the point where you are surprised if a police officer actually stops someone from going into an unauthorized place.

Mostly, nobody seems to know what is restricted and what isn’t, who can enter a locked area and who is forbidden. Rules mean nothing.

Which is why many American visitors have hired private security firms to take them around Johannesburg.

The other day, workers contracted to provide security at several of the stadiums went on strike, demanding better pay and more hours from their bosses. The security companies responded by firing the strikers, leaving some World Cup venues almost completely unprotected. Workers interviewed on television describe getting hired in the days before the World Cup, being handed a uniform and receiving no training. They were simply thrown onto the job with promises of riches that never came.

The morning after the firings, Yahoo! Americas editor Martin Munoz and I walked into the International Broadcast Center without FIFA credentials. We were in search of a FIFA office and unsure where exactly to go, but neither of us possess the ubiquitous press pass that everyone must wear in order to be allowed into the broadcast center. Over the years, IBC’s at World Cups and Olympics have come to be mini-fortresses, almost impossible to be breached.

Usually reporters are forced to run their bags through X-ray machines, walk through metal detectors and have their credentials examined by police or security. On this day we ambled past a small group of policemen huddled in a corner talking and through the metal detectors without question.

It wasn’t until we had reached the deep insides of the IBC, where the international networks keep their offices, that it came clear how serious a security breach this was. It’s a fact that was confirmed by a woman from FIFA who encountered us and looked stunned when we told her we had walked in unchecked. We left immediately, unsettled.

The job of protecting most of the World Cup’s stadiums has now fallen to South Africa’s police force. Already the police have been stretched thin, bringing in detectives and undercover officers to work at the stadiums. Not that it has done a great deal of good. On the day the U.S. played England in Rustenburg, a match attended by vice president Joe Biden, at least two vans of journalists without proper parking credentials raced by at least three checkpoints until they were inside the final ring of security.

Fortunately nothing happened, but with rumors that president Barack Obama might make a visit depending on how far the U.S. team advances in the World Cup, how can South Africa ensure his safety? How can it for anyone?

If a fan can walk into the locker room and confront David Beckham after a match marked for the highest level of security, what else can happen?

Hopefully we won’t find out.