The 2010 Soccer World Cup Local Organising Committee's (LOC's) online drive to attract volunteers for the 2009 Confederations Cup has been heralded as a "resounding success", with 34 721 people responding to the call to action.
The LOC has to fill just over 4 000 volunteer spots for the soccer tournament that it has acknowledged to be the dry run for the 2010 World Cup event.
The volunteers will assist in fields such as accreditation, administration, information technology, language support, logistics, transport, information services, media and marketing during the tournament.
In the ICT field, a need was identified for both hardware and software skills and, according to the LOC, 2 479 people from across the country applied for these positions.
The majority of these applications were from Johannesburg (1 119), followed by Tshwane/Pretoria (600), Mangaung/Bloemfontein (426), and then Rustenburg (324).
Johannesburg also led the pack as far as overall applications were concerned, with 16 236 volunteer applications, followed by Rustenburg with 6 580 applications, Mangaung/Bloemfontein with 6 489 applications and Tshwane/Pretoria with 5 416 applications.
While only South Africans qualify to volunteer at the tournament, applications did come in from as far as Germany, Brazil, the US, Ghana and Australia.
"We are humbled and greatly encouraged by the incredible response from South African residents who have responded to our call for volunteers for the Confederations Cup. After the end of the Beijing Olympics, the world's attention will shift to SA and the 2010 Fifa World Cup," said Dr Danny Jordaan, CEO of the LOC.
All submitted applications will now go through a pre-selection and selection process during the period from September to November 2008. All successful applicants will be contacted to attend interviews. While applicants will not be guaranteed a place as a volunteer for the 2010 World Cup, it will be advantageous to have previously worked at a Fifa event.
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