Mduduzi Mathuthu

Mduduzi is the New Zimbabwe.com editor. His interests include, but are not limited to, a complete devotion to his beloved Arsenal Football Club. He distrusts all politicians and believes the majority is not always right.

South Africa have World Cup, so why are they angry?

By Mduduzi MathuthuFootball, Politics, Travel Last updated on: February 17, 2010
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IT SAYS much about South Africa that the only thing I won’t miss after my four-week holiday here is the mosquitoes – the noisy blood-suckers that blight sub-Saharan Africa’s summer.

Yet that’s not how Africa’s most southern country is always perceived.
Much of the reporting on South Africa, particularly in the western media, paints a country at war with itself. If you have never been to South Africa, you probably have a picture of a country where widows are gunned down in broad daylight, robbed of their groceries and hung on lampposts. Or a country overrun by illegal immigrants and whose existence is threatened by disease – HIV to be precise.
My previous visits to South Africa have been brief – two weeks on average. I have been to Soweto and marvelled at the march of the burgeoning middle-class, almost a decade after the end of apartheid. I witnessed the poverty in Johannesburg’s poor neighbourhood of Alexandra, a stone-throw from the capitalist dream of Sandton. Such are the social contradictions in the Rainbow Nation.
But search as I might, I have not come across anything to align myself with the narrative of South Africa as a tragic state. I have walked freely on the streets of Johannesburg, dined and wined in all manner of restaurants and pubs – the only threat to my enjoyment of life being the fear of overspending.
My latest trip is particularly significant. It comes just months before South Africa hosts the 2010 Fifa World Cup – the greatest football show in the world, and the biggest sporting event outside the Olympics.
On the streets, the expectations are palpable. The poor look to the 2010 World Cup – the first time it’s held in Africa — as a possible route out of their poverty, never ask how. The rich, with their capital advantage, are gearing up for opportunities.
But in government, and the organising committee of the World Cup, the mood has swung from optimism and pride to victimhood.
The South Africans are angry that despite recruiting thousands more police, reducing violent crime, building an impressive road network, upgrading airports and finishing construction on the 10 World Cup Stadiums in record time, they still have to face questions about their readiness, and indeed their suitability as hosts of the World Cup.
For instance, Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness has said awarding the tournament to South Africa was "the biggest wrong decision" Fifa has made.
A gun-attack on the team-bus of the Togolese national team heading for the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, which left three dead, was seized on by the sceptics who connected it to the World Cup, once more raising questions about security in South Africa.

Hull manager Phil Brown’s reaction on hearing the news about the Togo incident was uncompromising: "I am appalled. This throws a question mark against next summer’s World Cup.

 

"You simply cannot put the safety of players, officials and fans at the slightest risk. That is totally unacceptable."

 

With a touch of theatre, the German football federation suggested its players and officials could wear bullet-proof vests when they travel to South Africa for the World Cup in June.

 

Despite South Africa’s attempts to reassure a sceptical world, it seems doubts remain.

 


Taking shape … Cape Town’s Green Point Stadium overlooking the sea

The best measure of the impact of the media coverage of South Africa can be seen in the slow ticket sales for the World Cup. The German FA, for instance, has sold just 1,916 of 21,000 tickets allocated. The Dutch have shifted 7,000 out of 22,000 and England is returning 6,000 of its 29,000 tickets.

 

The security question in particular, has become something of an irritant to the South Africans.

 

"It doesn’t make sense,” says Danny Jordaan, CEO of South Africa’s Fifa World Cup Organising Committee when asked about the Togo incident. “If a bomb went off in Spain, do you think I should call England to ask about what the impact is on the Olympics England is organising? I think if something happens in France, you’ll know it happened in France, not elsewhere.”

 

Jordaan points out that since 1994, South Africa has hosted 147 international events with no incident. While I was in South Africa, the England cricket team was in town – proof, Jordaan says, that the country is safe.

 

He goes further to suggest a conspiracy against South Africa, and Africa in general, and in this, he has the backing of FIFA president Sepp Blatter. “It seems there is an agenda to give the impression that South Africa cannot host this World Cup,” an agitated Jordaan said.

 

Cue Blatter: “It’s an anti-Africa prejudice. There is still in the so-called ‘old world’ a feeling that why the hell should Africa organise a World Cup?

“Colonialists over the past 100 years have gone to Africa and taken out all the best things, and now they are taking all the best footballers. There’s no respect."
Blatter has been forced to confront constant rumours that the World Cup could be switched to Australia, the ‘Plan B’ as it is called. These rumours have annoyed the South Africans greatly.
“Since winning the bid to host the World Cup, we have weathered cynical scepticism and downright misrepresentation,” Jordaan says.
“The government is upgrading roads, airports and mass transit systems. A beefed-up high-tech transport system of buses, trains and taxis will move football fans around.
“The government is giving us strong backing in terms of security measures and we will have a safe and secure World Cup tournament.”
More than three million people – including thousands of foreign visitors — will attend games at the 10 stadiums – six of them built from scratch.

On my visit, I passed through the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town and found it heavily guarded by troops from the South African Defence Forces. I learnt from locals that there was strong opposition to the construction of the stadium from the mostly white Afrikaner community, and the government is leaving nothing to chance.

The South Africans want to be given a chance. On my way to the airport, a large billboard captures the uniqueness of the 2010 World Cup: 11 languages, 10 stadiums, 4,344,136 vuvuzelas. Now that’s Ayoba!
There may be doubts, but Africans want the world to know it would be a World Cup like no other, and the South African government wants it to be remembered for the right reasons.
Thousands of football fans from around the world are no doubt still undecided whether to travel to Africa. I doubt they know that on average, at least 10 million tourists visit South Africa every year and safely return home with no incident.
For my money, as locals say, the 2010 World Cup will be just Ayoba (a local word which is used to refer to ANYTHING nice)!
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Tags: green point stadium, phill brown, sepp blatter, south africa, togo, world cup