Is SA ready to deal with a terror threat?

Most of us who still have command of our diminishing cognitive faculties will recall that fateful day in 1972 during the summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, when armed thugs belonging to a Palestinian militant group, Black September, descended upon the Olympic village that housed the Israeli team and held them hostage. This band of ruffians eventually murdered eleven Israeli athletes and their coaches, casting a dark shadow over an event that most Germans had hoped would help heal the racial wounds of the murderous Adolf Hitler. For the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, they were suspended.

The German authorities were caught with their pants down. They had not anticipated such an eventuality and were unprepared, which was confirmed by their clumsy response to the hostage situation. The threat of a terrorist act at such an event of global significance is ever-present. This was demonstrated recently in Lahore, Pakistan, when the Sri Lankan cricket team fell victim to a senseless terror attack. Those belonging to terrorist networks are determined and resourceful.

The 2010 Soccer World Cup, which is expected to attract more than a million tourists, including high-profile dignitaries, is no different to other events that are under continuous threat of terrorism. Terror networks are in most likelihood devising means of making their unwelcome presence felt during the World Cup. Fifa, having staged these events for donkey’s years, do recognise the clear and present threat of terrorism. The German security authorities claim to have averted a terrorist attack during the 2006 World Cup although some may accuse them of paranoia and racial profiling, which is much too common.

Given the unacceptable high-level of violent crime in South Africa, the question arises relating to the readiness of our security forces to deal with this threat and their ability to contain it should it materialise. Already we have an insane number of Zimbabweans who trek across the Limpopo into South Africa illegally, which exposes the vulnerability of our border control. It is common cause that those with sinister intentions would prefer to enter the country undetected. Surely a well-trained and smart ruffian is not going to risk arrest by exposing himself to immigration officials at the beginning of or during the World Cup. I would be surprised if most of these social miscreants are not in the country already.

Terror networks operate cells in various geographical locations. In most cases it is not foreigners who are in charge of these terror networks cells but the locals, as was evidenced in North Carolina not long ago when a certain Daniel Patrick Boyd, a “drywall contractor”, was arrested on suspicion of involvement in global terrorism. In 1995, Timothy McVeigh, a US Army veteran, was convicted of the Oklahoma bombing, which killed 168 people. The enemy may be in our backyard while we sit naively expecting him to knock at our immigration checkpoints and announce himself.

That our law-enforcement authorities are unable to contain violent crime would be the understatement of the century. It is of great concern to me and I assume to other equally paranoid South Africans that we do not have capable intelligence operatives to foil any potential terror attack. The National Intelligence Agency has a pre-occupation with tapping the phones of politicians instead of employing their voyeuristic tendencies to catching criminals and potential terrorists. At the moment the police are playing cat and mouse with shopping mall robbers. If these miscreants can terrorise shoppers with such regularity, surely Al Qaeda operatives would have a field day during World Cup.

It may provide some comfort and ease someone’s nerves that the South African Police Service claims to have trained for everything (note: “everything”) from “chemical, radiological and biological attacks to bombs and serious accidents”. But I am not that convinced that the SAPS would protect me because this training of theirs suggests they are expecting to respond to the aftermath of a terrorist attack. Families of victims would certainly appreciate this level of security. It does not help that SAPS Senior Superintendent Vishnu Naidoo says: “There is no intelligence to suggest there is any threat of terrorism during the World Cup. South Africa on its own is not a target for terrorism”. I hope this is not the view of the entire SAPS because if it is, then I am really frightened. It would be very naïve for the law-enforcement agencies to assume that terrorists would view South Africa in more favourable terms. They may be highly disgusted at the United States and its allies but that does not excuse us from their vengeance and furious anger.

Let us cross our fingers and toes and hope that the pimp from Lamontville will serve and protect us.