Joburg to interview World Cup volunteers

Volunteers for the World Cup will be trained to help with, among other things, communications, ushering services, translations and protocol.

Interviews are planned for World Cup volunteers, with people to be placed in various functional areas during the tournament.

Some 650 people who applied for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ volunteer programme in Johannesburg will be selected to serve in specific functional areas during the month-long tournament.

Interviews to choose these volunteers start on Tuesday, 19 January and will run up until 8 February at the Braamfontein Recreation Centre in Braamfontein, according to Nobantu Lesia, the deputy director: 2010 stakeholders liaison.

"Interviews start at 9am [and run until] 4pm ... Each day will be set aside to interview applicants in each of the functional areas they applied for," she says.

Of the 68 000 applicants received from South Africa and the rest of the world, Johannesburg, with two World Cup venues - Soccer City and Ellis Park - had 16 280 applications, almost twice the number received in Tshwane/Pretoria, the city with second highest applications.

"The response to the call for applications was excellent, outstanding. We received applications not only from locals but from international candidates as well. The entire world will be in Johannesburg during the World Cup," she says.

"From the number of applications received for Johannesburg, the City will require 650 people to work in five functional areas, namely: information services; environmental services; administration and logistics/claims; fan park/public viewing services; and language support/information services."

Successful applicants will work in several City departments, including which metro police (JMPD), transport, environmental management, the 2010 Office and the Johannesburg Tourism Company (JTC).

A sector that the City thinks will play an important role during the World Cup is the small businesses operating in and around Johannesburg. A small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) area has been created where volunteers will be placed, according to Lesia.

"Some of the applicants will be placed to work in this area, which deals with all small enterprises that will be operating during the World Cup."

If the City does not get the required number of people during the interview period, interview days will be extended to 25 February, she adds.

"From our experience during the 2009 Confederations Cup, some of the people who applied to be volunteers for the tournament were called for interviews but did not pitch up, especially in two of the three volunteer interview centres."

Braamfontein Recreation Centre had the highest number of interviewees, with very few people being interviewed in Finetown and Sandton. "This may have been due to the proximity of Braamfontein to most residential areas in the city. That is why we decided to have only one interview centre for World Cup interviews."

Because of the size of the World Cup, twice the number of volunteers who participated in the 2009 Confederations Cup is required for the 32-nation tournament. During the Confederations Cup, 314 volunteers were recruited.

"However, of these 314 volunteers, 279 turned up. The remainder did not pitch up for various reasons."

Lesia says interviews for the Confederations Cup volunteer programme were conducted by the 2010 FIFA World Cup Local Organising Committee (OC) in conjunction with host cities. This time around, all volunteers that will work with the host cities will be interviewed exclusively by the host cities.

"We learned a lot during the interview process hence this time around we are doing our own interviews. The OC is also conducting its own interviews for volunteers that it will require."

In total, 15 000 volunteers will be needed for the World Cup, which runs from 11 June to 11 July. Some of the functional areas that volunteers under the OC will serve in include accreditation, administration, environmental services, information services, information technology and communications, language support, legal, logistic services, marketing, media, protocol services, spectator services, ticketing, transport, ushering services and volunteer management.

The City of Johannesburg will share some of the functional areas with the OC, according to Lesia.

People in Johannesburg also applied to volunteer for the Football for Hope Festival, a FIFA tournament that takes place in Alexandra from 3 to 10 July. Interviews for these volunteers are being done by the OC, she explains. "Football for Hope falls strictly under FIFA. I understand interviews for people who applied to volunteer for the tournament have already started."

After the interviews, training of volunteers will be conducted by the OC beginning in March and ending in April. "The host cities will then provide their own training and induction. The induction will provide volunteers with vital information on exactly what is expected of them during the World Cup."

When the volunteer application process begun in July 2009, City of Johannesburg staff was encouraged to apply and Lesia hopes a number of council employees will take part.

"We made sure that our staff applied and those who did apply will be given priority since they are well-informed about the internal functions of the City. We wish to inform applicants, however, that unfortunately not everybody who applied is going to make it [into the volunteer programme]."

Volunteers will not be paid, but they will be able to participate in the World Cup. They will, however, get a travel allowance, an official World Cup volunteer uniform and food.