Police spokesman Superintendent Vishnu Naidoo said strict

security plans were in place for the match as well as all other

parallel events, such as team training. He said police from the

Durban North and South areas were involved in the operation as well

as metro traffic police, disaster management, match organisers and

private security.

According to Naidoo the "double perimeter stategy" was highly

successful at previous matches and on Saturday, only fans with

tickets will be allowed to pass through the first perimeter. They

will then be searched for "things which can be proved to be illegal

from a glass bottle to a gun" at the inner perimeter.

One of the event organisers, Felicia Ntisa, confirmed that the

teams will land in Durban on Thursday morning and at midday both

Chiefs and Supersport would take part in a bus parade through

Durban city centre, Umlazi, Lamontville and KwaMashu.

According to Ntisa the stadium gates will be opened at 8am on

Saturday and spectators will be treated to live entertainment like

Zulu and gumboot dancing as well as live music performances by

Brothers of Peace, Trompies and Kabelo.

Meanwhile, Ethekwini mayor Obed Mlaba said although none of the

finalists was from KwaZulu Natal, he will definitely be at the

match on Saturday. "I will be very objective and I will fully enjoy

the beautiful game because I won't be worried if my team will win,"

he said.

He added that during the campaigns for both the 2006 and 2010

Soccer World Cup bids, Durban "not only proved it was able to fill

stadiums but the enthusiasm outside the stadiums was out of this

world".

"The city needs a super stadium with a bigger capacity and we

could do for one single investment into the province from all three

tiers of government," said Mlaba.

"In the past 10 years we have not seen this sort of investment

in Durban and it is time they realise that KZN is part of South

Africa.

"Other provinces have an appeals court or a parliament but we

don't have even have major government institution in KZN," he

complained.

He said people in KZN had proved that with sport and other kinds

of tourism it attracted people from as far afield as Lesotho and

Zimbabwe.

The SAA Supa 8 final kicks off at 3.15pm on Saturday.