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Cape Town - South Africa's special World Cup courts are handing out swift justice, many for petty offences committed by foreigners, defying the fears of violent crime that dogged the host before kick-off.
The 56 dedicated courts have handed down 10 convictions and one acquittal in more than 20 cases that have seen mainly foreigners in the dock since opening at the end of May to fast-track World Cup crimes.
"The majority of accused persons are non-South Africans," Mthunzi Mhaga, spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority, told AFP.
Fears over high crime levels, with an average of 50 killings a day, were a major concern ahead of the World Cup with a British company marketing stab-proof vests for fans and headlines warning of possible machete attacks.
But while armed robbers have hit during the tournament, charges range from fraud, drunken driving, ticket scalping and marijuana possession to assault.
The most high-profile case so far was the arrest of two Dutch women for bringing 36 women to a World Cup match in orange miniskirts made by a brewery, in a case of "ambush marketing".
The courts - which cost R45m - run for 15 hours a day with 256 prosecutors and advocates working countrywide in two shifts.
On a public holiday this week, the Cape Town Magistrate's Court sat for the first appearance of a local man accused of robbing a Mexican tourist.
Open to 23:00
On Saturday, the city's regional court heard a case of a knife-armed robber threatening to kill a group of American fans after they returned to a rented house, local media reported.
"We start at eight in the morning and it goes up until 23:00 in the evening. All of us are here. There's none of us who are on call," said senior prosecutor David Jacobs who is based at the Magistrate's Court.
"Our objective is to deal with the cases as soon as possible."
The new World Cup courts were set up to not burden the already backlogged justice system and will remain open two weeks after the July 11 final.
The sentences have been quick and tough.
A trial in a Johannesburg court this week took 20 minutes to sentence a cellphone thief to five years in jail, the Saturday Star reported.
"Because the eyes of the world are on us, this court has a duty to send a strong message that these kinds of crimes will not be tolerated," the prosecutor was quoted as saying.
A Nigerian would-be ticket tout was sentenced this week to three years in jail after he was found with 30 match tickets.
15 years
And two Zimbabweans and one Nigerian were sentenced to up to 15 years for the armed robbery of three journalists covering the Portuguese team.
The speed of convictions has raised some concerns about whether the rights of the suspects are being respected.
"While justice delayed is justice denied, expedited justice too has inherent dangers," the Star newspaper said in an editorial.
"We are all innocent until proven guilty. We are also all entitled to a fair defence. These rights can never be subverted to a short-term goal."
The high number of foreigners behind the crimes led Bheki Cele to accuse non-South Africans of taking advantage of the country's rampant crime rate.
"We have observed a trend where foreigners commit crime - taking advantage of the fact that we have an unacceptable crime level - to tarnish our credibility and image," he was quoted as saying earlier this week.
For prosecutors like Jacobs, the new system has offered a glimpse of justice working without delays.
"I absolutely love it," he said.
