POLICE will go the extra mile to ensure high levels of safety and security on the Garden Route before, during and after the Fifa World Cup.

Western Cape police commissioner Mzwandile Petros said yesterday a contingent of senior Western Cape officers paid a surprise visit to the Garden Route at the weekend to assess the police’s World Cup preparedness in the region.

Three international football teams have chosen luxury resorts as base camps for the tournament.

Japan will be at Fancourt in George, while Denmark and France will respectively stay at Simola and Pezula in Knysna.

The three luxury golf resorts are the only venues in the Western Cape to have secured World Cup teams.

“These teams will stay at five-star resorts and the police are obliged to deliver a five-star safety and security service in the region,” Petros said.

He said 1200 new policemen had been recruited and trained in the Western Cape in the past two years in anticipation of the World Cup, and many of these would be deployed on the Garden Route, along with senior provincial officers to complement the local police.

Free tickets would be issued to the public to attend certain training sessions of the French team at the Field of Dreams at Pezula and of the Danish team at Loerie Park in Knysna.

Fan access at the open sessions would be controlled because of the large numbers expected.

In the run-up to the big tournament, police operations would be intensified, targeting organised crime, drug dealing, illegal shebeens and robbery among other problem areas.

He said Knysna’s famous Oyster Festival coincided with the World Cup, adding to the multitudes of visitors expected in the town in June/July, and subsequently a strong police presence was essential.

Meanwhile, Petros also stressed the need for urgent investigation and arrest in the case of the alleged rape of a Plettenberg Bay guest house owner by two Knysna policemen a month ago.

The investigation was in the hands of the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), but police would provide whatever support was required because the incident had tarnished the image of police in Knysna and could break down trust between the community and the SAPS.

The same applied to the ICD investigation into the death of a suspect, allegedly at the hands of three policemen in the Knysna police station cells on February 28.