World Cup volunteers put through their paces (Feature)

By Clare Byrne Mar 15, 2010, 5:28 GMT

Johannesburg - A ripple of excitement courses through the crowd of about 2,000 people, who have been sitting sagely all afternoon in Johannesburg's Sandton Convention Centre, watching video presentations.

Friday was the first day of training for some of the volunteers selected to help out at the football World Cup in South Africa.

After three hours of promotional films about the importance of the World Cup and its significance for the young South African republic, things are about to get physical.

Jumping to their feet, rows of mostly young men and women push back their chairs and start limbering up to learn the Diski - a dance routine named after a local slang term for football, which has been specifically created for the Cup.

Standing at a lectern on a podium at the front of the hall, a choreographer wearing a yellow South African football jersey takes them through the drill.

'First you trap the (imaginary) ball between your legs and count to four, and then you kick it four times and then cross it,' she says, demonstrating the first part of the routine, which ordinary people are shown performing at work, at home and in the street in South African Tourism ads but most locals have yet to master.

Over the next 30 minutes, the sea of volunteers is cajoled giggling and panting through a series of classic football moves.

Dribbling past an opponent is known as the samba while the act of hunching your shoulders and catching the ball with your back is called a Table Mountain after Cape Town's flat-topped icon.

Wrong-footed by the quick succession of steps, some of the less lithe volunteers flop back into their chairs half-way through and wait for the next part of the training - a World Cup quiz.

What does FIFA stand for, the MC wants to know. A few hands shoot up but it takes a French-speaking Democratic Republic of Congo native to get the title of the Swiss-based global football body exactly right.

The training in Sandton regrouped the 2,200 volunteers who will be stationed at the city's Ellis Park stadium - one of two World Cup stadiums in the city.

'I want to see exactly what all this football thing is about. As a lady,' said Evelyn Lekganyae, at 46 one of the older volunteers (the oldest is a 78-year-old man from Port Elizabeth) explaining why she applied to be a volunteer.

The mother of two comes from Tembisa, a township about a 30-minute ride in a minibus taxi from the town's business district, where the training was held.

Lekganyae has been out of work since being made redundant from her job as a secretary two years ago and says she cannot afford World Cup tickets, which start at 20 dollars for locals.

A keen football fan, Lekganyae, who wore her son's red Manchester United jersey and a matching red woollen hat to the training, will be directing fans to their seats at Ellis Park during six games in June and July.

'I like it when they all stand up and shout,' she confides.

For Arnold Moyo, 28, the World Cup is a second chance to see his favourite side, Brazil, in action when they take on North Korea at Ellis Park on June 20.

Moyo, who lives in inner-city Johannesburg, volunteered at the eight-nation FIFA Confederations Cup or 'Championship of Champions' last year, which Brazil won.

'It's just a passion,' he says, smiling.

The tasks for which a total of 18,000 volunteers have been selected range from guiding spectators through the stadium turnstiles to driving FIFA officials to and from the airport and issuing media with their accreditation.

Apart from Ellis park, volunteers at Mbombela stadium in the north-eastern city of Nelspruit also completed their initial training at the weekend. Volunteers in other cities are due to be trained by end of April.

The 3,000 volunteers who will be coming from overseas, some of whom will bring experience of volunteering at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the 2008 Beijing Olympics or even the just-ended Vancouver Olympics, will be trained over the internet.

The volunteers receive a stipend of 100 rands a day. None of their travel costs are covered.