London Latest - South African President at Olympic Park

(ATR) South African President Jacob Zuma paid an official visit to the site of the London 2012 Olympic Park and Wembley Stadium in London Thursday.

Accompanied by an entourage of 12 government ministers, Zuma made a first stop at the east London Olympic Park, where he met with London 2012 chair Sebastian Coe, Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Olympic Delivery Authority chair John Armitt.

Standing on a rooftop platform on the major construction site, Zuma was given an update on the progress being made on the Olympic Park and the wider preparations for the 2012 Games.

Zuma quipped that he believed that the construction projects will be completed on time to host the Games in two years time. He said that the organizers had no reason to be worried, and should pay little to negative criticism, just as South Africa had done in its preparations for the 2010 World Cup.

“I believe that miracles do happen, as people gave us no chance to complete the stadiums on time just a year ago. Now we are actually ahead of schedule.”

Johnson welcomed Zuma to the Olympic site.

"As South Africa passes its 100 days to go countdown to the World Cup it's an honor to host President Zuma at the Olympic Park and show our great progress with less than 900 days to go to the 2012 London Games,” said the mayor.

“Hosting world-class sporting events is something South Africa and London have in common and it was useful to discuss our 2018 World Cup bid with the President and his delegation,” he continued. “I wish him and South Africa the very best of luck this summer and hope he has an enjoyable and informative visit to London."

Focus on the 2018 World Cup Bid and South Africa 2010 World Cup continued as Zuma went to Wembley Stadium to meet Lord Triesman, England 2018 bid chairman.

Triesman stated that the bid is continuing efforts to encourage even more English people to go to watch the World Cup in South Africa.

“We have had a close relationship with football in South Africa and on the rest of the African continent over many years; and are proud of the assistance we have provided in various programs to develop the game,”said Triesman.

Triesman said that the England senior national team players had agreed to donate part of their pay from matches played recently towards the Street Child World Cup, which will be held in South Africa from March 13th.

Quizzed on whether he could guarantee South Africa’s support of the England 2018 Bid, Zuma, who is also head of the ruling African National Congress, refused to be drawn on that, diplomatically proclaiming that “we believe that England will stage a bid strong enough to compel members of FIFA’s Executive to give great consideration to them.”

Zuma said that it “was expected that there would be some criticism of South Africa’s preparations for the World Cup – but that we are proud of the notion that various government departments, the organizing committee and private sector stakeholders continued to work diligently and stayed focused on the job at hand.”

He downplayed questions over security, a recurring topic raised by the media covering Zuma.

World Cup 2010 CEO Danny Jordaan, CEO of the OC told media that they should remember that the media had criticized various aspects of security at a number of global sporting events, including the Seoul Olympics South Korea and the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

He said that security concerns appear to have had limited impact on British ticket buyers.

“About 100,000 tickets have been snapped up in the UK alone, and another 120 000 in the US – these buyers would not have shown so much confidence in our messages to them if they were so concerned.”

Jordaan, an ANC stalwart and former member of South Africa’s parliament, revealed that 700,000 requests had been received for the remaining 900, 000 tickets.

Earlier on in the day, Zuma and Prime Minister Gordon Brown reached a resolution that South Africa will host a global summit on education during the World Cup.

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Written by Thapelo Moloantoa.