05/07/2008 17:53 - (SA)
Chaos stops ball rolling
vivian Mooki
REGISTRATIONS for the 2009 Confederations Cup got off to a slow start last week with several community centres failing to register volunteers due to technical glitches.
While the 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC) announced community centres where people without internet access could go for registrations, some centres were still to be connected on Wednesday.
Droves of people were turned away from the Orlando West community centre, while in Dobsonville others had to wait for hours as an employee at the centre struggled to access the online registration forms as the person tasked with helping the volunteers had gone AWOL.
“This is the biggest event Africa has ever hosted in terms of soccer and we can’t have problems like these. What will happen when the actual event starts?” Tebogo Bogatsu, a resident who wanted to register, asked.
He was one of those turned away from Orlando West.
“There are people trained to help register volunteers, but the one assigned to our centre failed to come today and we can’t turn people away because we have been given the laptop already,” said Tshepiso Rabosiwana.
As she fiddled with the laptop on her desk, prospective volunteers who had hoped to put down their names for the 2009 event were growing irritated.
“You can’t believe how long we’ve been here. We just hope this lady can sort this laptop out so that we can register,” said Bornventure Liphoto.
Forty-year-old Liphoto works as a soccer coach at the Florida-based Albion soccer academy and said he was volunteering to “beef up his profile”.
“Volunteering will give me an opportunity to network with stars and soccer fanatics from around the world and it will definitely come in handy in my future endeavours.”
A Level 2 coach, Liphoto dreams of coaching Bafana-Bafana one day.
“I’ve been involved in soccer for over 20 years and I will soon train to be a Level 1 coach, something that will help me realise my dream of coaching the national team,” he said.
As soon as the laptop was sorted out, Liphoto put down his name to help out with information services.
“This will be one of those events which I’ll proudly declare to everyone I know that I was part of,” he said.
Another volunteer, Motiisetsi Morai (32) said he decided to volunteer as that might be his only chance of meeting his favourite soccer stars.
“I’m unemployed and I might not be able to afford a ticket to go see the games, so volunteering will be the closest I get to experiencing the hype.”
LOC spokesperson Herman Beetge said the glitches would be sorted out this week.
“In the first week we will pick up some problems, but by the second week everything will be running smoothly,” Beetge said.
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