Let me take this opportunity and welcome all of you to this breakfast and I’d like to wish everyone a happy new year.

We thank you for honouring us with your presence this morning, with only four days to go before the start of the Africa Cup of Nations Tournament.
The aim of today’s meeting is to engage with our media partners, as an important stakeholder in driving the message home that as the City of Durban we are ready to host a successful AFCON 2013 and to encourage our people to buy tickets so that we can fill the Moses Mabhida Stadium during all the matches.

The successful hosting of major events in the past week, including the 10 day AFCON Countdown Parade, the ANC’s January 8 Statement Rally and Volvo Golf Tournament, has given us an opportunity to test all our systems, from logistical arrangements, traffic control, public transport management, security, emergency services, etc, and we have passed the test with flying colours.

Ladies and gentlemen

Our team has worked tirelessly throughout the festive season to ensure that all plans are in place for the tournament. I am happy to report to you that the Moses Mabhida stadium is ready for the kickoff on the 23rd of January.
The necessary renovations have been completed and the world-class desso system has been installed.  This is particularly aimed at accommodating some of the games that will be double-headers. 

The planned rehabilitation work on the training venues has also been completed.

From the transportation point of view, we will not be having the park and ride system like we had during the world cup. But we have made all the necessary arrangements in terms of logistics and to allow the public to have easy access to the venue.

Members of the public can park their vehicles at various sites, including the Drive-inn, Natal Command site, Mustering fields, Suncoast Casino, Kings Park stadium and the swimming pool.

We also want to encourage the public to utilise public transport, and as such we are arranging parking and security at several train stations so that people can park their cars safely and jump on to the train to the stadium.

Spectators are also encouraged to park on the beachfront and in the CBD and to use the People Mover bus service to easily access the stadium.
As expected, there will be several road closures and details of these will be publicised in different newspapers in the next few days.

Thanks to the intense mobilisation and marketing strategy that has been undertaken, there has been a drastic increase in ticket sales at various ticketing outlets around the province.  As the host city we have also put in extra measures to identify challenges experienced with the sale of tickets and try to resolve them, including visiting the different participating Super Spar outlets to ensure that tickets are available.

Programme director
Over the past few weeks we have intensified our mobilisation drive, including the very successful 10 day countdown celebration last week. There are several activations that have been lined up and will be rolled out before and after kick-off. For an example, tomorrow (Wednesday) and Thursday, we will be having early morning train activations whereby some of us will be interacting with commuters on trains. Tomorrow we will be in the northern areas, boarding the train in Tongaat to KwaMashu and Moses Mabhida Stadium. And on Thursday we will visit the south, Chatsworth station, Umlazi and end up at Moses Mabhida Stadium. You are invited to send photographers to these events.

There will be other activities, of which you will be advised, including motorcades as well as public viewing areas which have been set up for some games in Richardsbay, Pietermaritzburg, Ugu District and Durban’s New Beach.

Some of this information is provided in the media packs that have been distributed to you this morning.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are informed that the four teams that will be based in Durban, South Africa, Angola, Cape Verde and Morocco, will be arriving in our City on Sunday, after playing their first group matches in Johannesburg. We are ready to roll out the red carpet for them and all the logistics are in place to ensure that they have a comfortable stay. These include the hotels, training venues as well as security.

In conclusion, I wish to urge you as our media stakeholders to really assist us in drumming up support for this tournament. We have done everything in our power, with limited resources, to market this tournament and to raise awareness.

I thank you.