Thabo Mbeki has assured Sepp Blatter, head of FIFA, that South Africa would host a successful World Cup in 2010 despite ongoing concerns over electricity outages throughout South Africa.

President Mbeki confronted doubts about his country’s 2010 preparations in talks with Blatter and other officials on the sidelines of the African Union summit in Ethiopia last week.

“I do not have information about their conversation, but the President dealt with these matters, giving a clear indication that we will host a successful World Cup,” said Jabu Moleketi, Deputy Minister of Finance and head of the 2010 task team.

It was also confirmed that all the stadiums to be used in 2010 were to run off independent power sources, using the national grid source purely as backup.

“We have held a meeting with Eskom and agreed that all hosting cities in the country should be given a priority during the World Cup,” continued Moleketi.

President Mbeki also raised concerns in his State of the Nation speech on Friday.

“The current challenges we are facing have led some elsewhere in the world once more to question whether we will be able to host these tournaments successfully.

“Of course, I have absolutely no doubt that we will honour our undertaking to FIFA and the world community of soccer players and lovers to create all the necessary conditions for the holding of the best ever FIFA World Cup tournament.

“The sense that we get, across all sectors of South African society and further afield, represented by the actual daily progress we are making in terms of our all-round preparations, is one of ‘Business Unusual: all hands on deck for 2010!’ We must ensure that we sustain this approach,” he said.

Visitors and sceptics should also not forget that South Africa successfully staged the Rugby World Cup and Cricket World Cup in recent years, with many stating that the cricket event held in 2003, was the best ever.