Come midnight, Cape Town will be ready to face any Y2K bugs that could spoil the millennium party.
Cape Metropolitan Council (CMC) officials said on Thursday that the occasion would be the culmination of almost three years of work to make the city Y2K compliant. Making its computers Y2K compliant has cost the city about R20-million.
A joint operation centre will provide co-ordination for the province as well as the seven sub-structures of the CMC. The centre will have direct links with police, the army, ambulance services, Eskom and other essential services. The centre has a radio control room and will have a toll-free line.
"If communication lines fail, traffic officers will ferry messages," CMC disaster management head Wynand Wessels said. "Green Point Stadium will be a central point from which emergency services teams can be dispatched in an emergency in the City Bowl."
CMC Mayor William Bantom was confident that little would go wrong. Stewart Fisher, chief executive officer of the CMC, said the computer systems of the CMC and its substructures were ready.
"We have reduced the Y2K date-related problems in our critical systems, but there always remains the slightest chance of problems," he said.
"The risk of Y2K-related viruses, which has arisen in other centres in the world, has led us to switch off our computer and Internet systems until around January 4."
The following are emergency numbers to use during the New Year period:
CMC joint operations centre - (021) 424-7715.
Blaauwberg municipality - (021) 52-2222.
Cape Town fire - 535-1100.
Cape Town disaster management - 400-3333.
Helderberg municipality - 853-1188.
Oostenberg municipality - 903-9111.
South Peninsula municipality - 73-1892.
City of Tygerberg - 590-1900.