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Cape Town - Over a thousand police trainees were deployed to Cape Town's stadium on Monday evening after striking security officials walked off ahead of a World Cup match between Italy and Paraguay, Western Cape police said.
"Additional personnel from the city's law enforcement, traffic services and metro police were also deployed to fill the void left by the striking stewards," said Colonel Billy Jones.
The trainees were from the Bishop Lavis and Phillipi police colleges.
"The intervention follows a strike by security stewards... They (trainees) will perform search and security duties ahead of the soccer game," said Jones.
"There are currently no long queues into the stadium as the additional personnel have already resumed their search duties."
Jones said the SAPF had earlier "peacefully moved" 500 striking workers out of the stadium.
Local Organising Committee (OC) spokesperson Rich Mkhondo said the committee had asked the police to take over security services at the Cape Town stadium and Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban until further notice.
"The request came after stewards left their posts following a wage dispute with their employer, Stallion Security Consortium Pty (Ltd)," Mkhondo said in a statement.
Unacceptable
"The police have taken over responsibility for the security at Cape Town Stadium for the match between Italy and Paraguay due to start at 20:30 tonight."
He said gates were open and police were in control.
"The match will kick off as scheduled."
OC chief executive Danny Jordaan said this was unacceptable and action could be taken.
"This is an employer, employee wage dispute. Although we have respect for workers' rights, we find it unacceptable for them to disrupt match day proceedings and will not hesitate to take action in such instances."
The OC said it would continue to monitor the situation.
