Africans to boost World Cup power

South Africa is eagerly awaiting the World Cup finals

Twelve of South Africa's neighbours have pledged to supply electricity to help prevent power cuts during the 2010 football World Cup.

The Southern African Power Pool (Sapp), whose members already share electricity supplies, promised to transmit extra power to South Africa.

South Africa was hit by severe power cuts last year, which led some to doubt its ability to stage the showpiece.

The shortages led South Africa to cut some power supplies to its neighbours.

South Africa's state-owned power company Eskom welcomed the pledges made at a meeting in the Mozambican capital, Maputo.

"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.

This is the first time the World Cup has been hosted in Africa.

Some Sapp members, such as Zimbabwe and Mozambique, normally import power from South Africa, while others also suffer power shortages.

The other Sapp members are: Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia.

Sapp has a long-standing plan to build a huge dam in DR Congo, which would provide electricity to the whole region.