PRESS RELEASE                                                                                           05 April 2002 

BACKROOM BOYS WERE BEHIND THE SUCCESS OF WEEKEND SPORTING BONANZA

They are the backroom boys and their profile is low. But without their skill, dedication and commitment, last weekend’s sporting bonanza in Cape Town could easily have degenerated into chaos. 

With 35 000 cyclists in town for the Argus Pick ‘n Pay Cycle Tour, an estimated 200 000 spectators, six other major international sporting events, and ordinary motorists and pedestrians vying for space on the city’s roads and viewing points, it was a logistical nightmare that would send most events specialists running for cover. 

The city’s traffic and emergency services were stretched to the limit, but the backroom boys were ready to show the world that the Cape of Great Events was more than equal to the task. 

Apart from the Cycle Tour on Sunday, there was the cricket Test between South Africa and Australia at Newlands cricket stadium from Friday to Tuesday (35 000 spectators), a Super-12 rugby match at Newlands rugby stadium on Friday night (45 000 spectators), packed stands at the Tri-Nations International Track Challenge at the Bellville Velodrome and at the ABSA Athletics Series at the adjacent stadium, the 100 000 visitors who turned up at the LifeCycle Expo at the Good Hope Centre, and the crowds for the Giro del Capo international cycle race.  

With world sporting attention glued to Cape Town, and with so many visitors shoehorned into the city on a single weekend, serious mistakes would have been costly for the city’s image.

Pat Lennox, Head of the Events Office at the City of Cape Town, said: “This was a potent brew of major events and we were under the microscope over the weekend. The City had to pull out all the stops to handle the pressure. As the Cape of Great Events, we try to make sure that we deliver excellence in all respects, both on and off the field.”  

Every detail had to be attended to and every contingency covered. In fact, the weekend saw the biggest disaster management exercise ever held in the Western Cape with police, national security, air wing, metro emergency services, traffic police, and other dedicated specialists grouped together at the two Joint Operations Centres at Green Point and Newlands.

While there will always be some complaints and some imperfections in a sporting brew of this magnitude, consensus among those involved in the management and co-ordination of the events is that they were better than ever before, but that there is still room for improvement.

In charge of the City of Cape Town’s transport planning and road usage was Peter Sole and he - as much as anyone - felt the heat of the occasion.

“For the first time, we tackled traffic and transport planning holistically because we wanted to make the weekend a pleasant experience for all road users – and that includes people who were not involved in any of these events,” he said.

“Because we knew there could be massive traffic congestion with so many huge events on the same day, we started developing our traffic plan back in November last year. It was a daunting challenge”, he said. “Generally we were very happy with the weekend traffic flow. Congestion at the Tour finish was greatly reduced and traffic management was much better than last year, although there were areas for improvement. Next year we aim to be at 100 per cent efficiency.”

Ken Sturgeon, a co-chair of the Cycle Tour Organising Committee, said traffic management was the best yet for major events. “We have learned from mistakes in the past, and if there was any problem it was our communication with the public and some of our road signs,” he said. “Unlike last year, the freeway at Green Point was kept open and this helped to clear traffic quite quickly after the finish and the Carnival.”

Potential bottlenecks in the South Peninsula were largely avoided but, in the oppressive heat, it was decided to stop the Tour early, partly to allow ambulances to reach cyclists in distress without endangering other cyclists.

From the traffic perspective, some 200 officers were on duty at major intersections and the timing of traffic lights was adjusted when necessary through the Area Traffic Control centre, a world-class computerised system that speeds up traffic flow during busy periods.

It was not just a question of managing traffic on the roads. Metrorail ran extra trains and reduced fares for the day as their contribution to ensuring that Cape Town’s roads were congestion-free and that Capetonians and visitors could enjoy the weekend’s events. Metrorail spokesperson Riana Jacobs said trains were substantially fuller on the day and added that more trains would be laid on at future major events.

Given the searing heat of the day, it soon became clear to the team in Joint Operations that the prepared disaster management plan might have to be activated. When the decision was taken to curtail the Tour, the plan was in action within 15 minutes. Buses and trucks headed out onto the route and collected all the cyclists and their bicycles.

“We only have two bicycles that are unclaimed,” said Sturgeon.

Emergency helicopters with full medical facilities were used intensively to ferry distressed cyclists out and to move personnel around the Peninsula. Overall, the medical rescue aspect seems to have worked well although, tragically, three people died. Some 67 ambulances and 32 doctors were on duty during the Tour.

“We are our own strongest critics and we accept there is still some fine tuning to be done,” said Sturgeon.

Apart from traffic, major events also generate large quantities of rubbish. For the first time, an Environmental Management Plan was prepared, using students from UCT. The objective was to minimise the potential negative aspects of the Tour such as noise, littering, access to race areas and trampling on vegetation, while maximising the positive environmental aspects. An independent audit has been carried out and a report is awaited.

A cleansing campaign introduced for the Cycle Tour also appears to have been successful. Two days after the event all traces of the rubbish generated by the Tour had gone. The campaign was a co-ordinated effort between the City’s Cleansing Department, the Fairest Cape Association, the Rotary Club of Oostenberg and one of the Tour sponsors, Wasteman. Tins, bottles, sachets and other leftovers from the Tour and the after-race Carnival were separated and recycled at the Wasteman depot.

Manfred Kloss of Oostenberg Rotary Club described the programme as “very successful”.  He said 65 tons of rubbish was picked up along the route and at the Carnival area, and he thanked the five companies that helped with bins and other facilities.    

Significantly, the cleansing campaign this year also involved communities living along the route. The communities of Ocean View and Masiphumelele and Noordhoek worked closely with the Kommetjie Environmental Action Group to keep the route clean in their part of the Peninsula.

Councillor Kent Morkel, Executive Councillor for Economic Development, Tourism and Property Management, said the Cape of Great Events was determined to set a world-class example of how a massive event like the Cycle Tour and the other major events over the weekend should be managed.

“The Events Office of the City of Cape Town helped the organisers, sponsors and others involved to make all the events an outstanding success,” he said. “With huge media interest and live television coverage of the Cycle Tour for the   first time, we wanted the world to know that when things are done in Cape Town, they are done well.”

Councillor Morkel thanked all the people of Cape Town for their support, especially the “unsung heroes” who gave much time and effort to ensure the smooth running of the Cycle Tour and the other major events over a memorable weekend of sport.

____________________________________________________________________