My trip to Soccer City Part 2: Lanseria Airport is NOT in Joburg!

Posted on 29. Jul, 2010 by Ashraf in 2010 Legacy

I actually forgot that I was suppose to write the second part of this article. That was until I received my Omnia cellphone from Joburg via the post office’s speed services yesterday….

If you read Part 1 of this story you will know how I managed to get Media Accreditation for the 2010 World Cup, if you haven’t yet you can read it here. In Part 2, I will be focusing on my trip to Soccer City for the 2010 World Cup Final.

I started out working at Cape Town Stadium, with the France v Uruguay being my first match. I was like a deer caught between the headlights though as there was no other journalists from Goal.com working with me. I eventually managed to find my way and quickly discovered what a mixed zone area was and why most journos preferred to skip the post match press conference (It’s damn boring!)

I was later joined by one of the goal journalists for the Italy v Paraguay, England v Algeria matches and he showed me the ropes so to speak. His name is Amar Singh, one of the websites Editors from London, and and he’s a real stand up guy.

I was now finding my stride and as I continued to cover the rest of the Cape Town matches on my own. The semi final between Netherlands and Uruguay was my last match at Cape Town stadium. I was only supposed to cover Cape Town matches but at the last minute I decided to apply for a match ticket for the Final at Soccer City.

Then on Friday the 9th of July, I received conformation from FIFA that my match ticket application was successful! I still had reservations though, because I knew that Goal.com would not pay for transport and accommodation for a match that I was not asked to cover.
Eventually on Saturday afternoon I decided that I would be going to Joburg. The only problem was that 99% of the Flights were fully booked. After searching all of the major airlines I found two tickets with Kulula, but they were going to Lanseria(Joburg) airport. I had never heard of Lanseria airport so naturally I called the airline to find out where it was. The lady told me “don’t worry, it’s in Joburg”, and I proceeded to buy the tickets.

My flight was booked for 5AM on Sunday Morning, from Cape Town to Lanseria, and the return flight was booked for 3AM on Monday. This meant that I wouldn’t have to sleep over in Joburg.

I made it quite early to Cape Town Airport and had no trouble finding my way around. This was my first time on a plain, and my first time leaving Cape Town so naturally I was a bit nervous. The flight was quite pleasant until we landed in Lanseria. Trust me it is not IN Johannesburg!

So there I was in the middle of nowhere, which is where Lanseria Airport is actually situated. There were some meter taxi’s around but they were all waiting for their own people. I asked the security where I could get a taxi that could take me to Soccer City and the confused look on his face immediately told me that Soccer City was not close to Lanseria.

He eventually told me that I had to take a minibus taxi to Randburg, and from there take another taxi to get to Johannesburg CBD, from there I could then take the Rea Vaya Transit Bus which would take me to Soccer City…..

I wanted to complete this story in two parts but I can see that it’s getting a bit lengthy so I’ll stop here for now and conclude with Part 3 on the weekend….