England fans urged to ignore security fears
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Your support makes all the difference.South Africa's minister of police Nathi Mthethwa has urged England supporters to ignore the "prophets of doom" when they travel to the World Cup.
The host nation for this summer's finals are devoting huge resources to ensuring the fans' safety, including the deployment of 41,000 police officers.
Security has been an issue that has dogged preparations for the World Cup because of South Africa's crime rate, which is among the highest in the world.
But Mthethwa has offered reassurance to UK supporters travelling to the finals by declaring they will be unharmed.
"It's interesting that questions over safety are beginning to diminish because people who have been to South Africa have seen the truth," he said.
"Of course there are always prophets of doom who always think something very bad will happen. But South Africa is ready and we are going to prove it.
"For the past five years we've been preparing for this. We have contributed a huge amount of human resources and state-of-the-art technology to this issue.
"There will be more than 40,000 people on the ground ensuring the safety of players and visitors.
"We are ready and we mean that. Don't forget that in 2002 Johannesburg hosted the world summit on sustainable development.
"The kind of security model that we came up with then was subsequently copied around the world.
"People should not be worried about their safety. I'm confident that any fan who comes to the World Cup will be safe.
"It's understandable that safety is such a big concern for people. But in the beginning people were saying we couldn't do it - the stadiums wouldn't be ready .
"Each time a matter has been raised we've been able to respond to it successfully."
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