Twelve of South Africa's neighbours have pledged to supply electricity to help prevent power cuts during the World Cup which is due to kick off next year.

The Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) members, who already share electricity supplies, have promised to send extra power to South Africa during the event after fears were brought to the public last year that South Africa might not be able to handle the extra demand the World Cup is going to bring.

South Africa's state-owned power company Eskom have welcomed the pledges made this week.

"This initiative confirms that the 2010 FIFA World Cup is truly and indeed an African event," said Eskom Project 2010 unit managing director Johnny Dladla.

While power is normally shared and some neighbouring countries from South Africa usually pull power from South Africa, all have committed to working to make the 2010 World Cup a truly African event.

The other SAPP member countries are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.