My friend Nkosinathi Tshuma, who should have been at the office today, is stranded in Botswana after missing his flight.

That means he won’t be able to attend this afternoon’s end-of-year party.

Nixon Mao Nyikadzino, a regular opinion writer for this website who now works for Crisis, is in a festive mood. Not since arriving in South Africa have I seen him in such dangerously high spirits.

After the Christmas party, Mao and the rest of the staff intend to go and watch Oliver Mtukudzi who is in town later tonight.

In all the excitement, Mao tells me he has become a personal safety stickler after he was robbed on the rough Johannesburg streets just a week ago.

According to Mao, he was with friends in Yeovil – a suburb which sits next to the notoriously rough neighbourhood of Hillbrow and Bramfonteein – when their car was bumped late in the night by a speeding driver.

The driver of the other car just drove on, not caring to stop and check the damage on his car.

“I told the chap who was driving us to keep going,” Mao tells me. “But in his wisdom, he got out of the car screaming and kicking, shouting at the other guy for bumping our car. I was right and he was wrong.”

Seconds later they were surrounded by a gang of about 10 mercenary-looking youths. Some of them, Mao told me, spoke in Shona – suggesting they were Zimbabweans (South Africans think most crime is committed by Zimbabweans in fact).

Within seconds, they had been searched of all their personal belongings and the car had been combed clean of any movable items.

If you are coming for the World Cup in 2010, one of the tips is never to stop your car if it’s bumped by a hit-and-run driver. It can get worse, horribly worse in some cases.
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This afternoon I got a call from Lenah Mochoele, the manager of reggae superstar Lucky Dube. I met her sometime last year when she came to Cardiff.

She now works at the Gauteng Economic Development Agency (Geda) as their PR and Marketing guru.

She has invited me to visit their offices, not too far from the Crisis in Zimbabwe offices.

Geda exists to drive tourism and promote investment in Johannesburg. In the past six years the organisation has attracted R7 billion investment into South Africa, created more than 120 000 jobs and a plethora of business opportunities for local and foreign investors, according to officials.

Gauteng Finance and Economic Affairs MEC Paul Mashatile says Geda was set up to “consolidate Gauteng’s strategic position as a gateway to the African continent.”

Economically, South Africa is thriving. Make no mistake about that. While Zimbabwe has more NGOs opening offices every year to fight for this or that human right, South Africa is deploying a lot of skill and effort at attracting investment.

Geda staff is having their own Christmas party when I get there. Lenah ushers me into her office.

She is currently in the middle of organising the Johannesburg Open golf tournament which kicks off in mid-January. Top golfers from around the world will be descending on the City of Gold, and it is Geda’s baby to make sure everything goes according to plan.

On the economic front, there is everything admirable about South Africa in 2006.

I later got chatting to some of Lenah’s colleagues – over a drink – about the difficulties that South Africa might face with the hosting of the 2010 World Cup.

I was obviously aware these guys are paid to project a good image of South Africa – admittedly, there is a lot of good to project – but I thought their thoughts on this matter are critical in the face of some attempts, especially by Australia, to project South Africa as not ready for the World Cup.

Australian football authorities have been feeding rumours that South Africa’s preparations to host the 2010 World Cup are facing serious difficulties.

South Africa’s head of the Local Organising Committee, Dany Jordan, sent a letter of protest to the Australian foreign ministry to denounce Australia’s attitude as unfair.

John O’Neill, head of the Australian Football Federation (AFF) made the following statement last September: “We’ve got to be ready to be absolutely opportunistic. There are all sorts of question marks about infrastructure or requirements in South Africa. Australia doesn’t have those problems.”

And the Prime Minister of New South Wales, Morris Lemma, said Australia has “the capacity to step into the breach at a moment’s notice. If it can’t come off with South Africa, and there are doubts that it can, then we are by far the best alternative.”

The Western newspapers have also been fuelling fresh concerns by overplaying the crime factor. A French woman was raped in Durban early this month and it made headlines around the world.

Clearly, the knives are out. If 2010 is to happen, Geda will have to go into the trenches with the World Cup organisers and fend off the negative vibes generated by the Australians and South Africa’s own right-wing media.

Lenah has declined to answer any questions on the World Cup. She has asked a colleague, a fellow named Charles, to give me his thoughts on my question: ‘What is likely to be the problem with the World Cup in 2010.”

“Let me start by answering what you have not asked,” Charles said. “I don’t think crime will be an issue. My view is that access to stadiums and the road networks will be the greatest challenge.”

I get it. Don’t mention the ‘C’ word!
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Lenah has invited me to visit her house in Midrand, about 20 minutes north of Johannesburg.

Midrand is one of the many booming housing developments created for middle-class South Africans.

If you have a steady job, property ownership should be the obvious ambition. Many working professionals here are taking advantage. That’s the mark of a functional country.
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I left Lenah’s house moments later for the Midrand News Café where Dingilizwe Ntuli and Xolani Xundu, a colleague from the Sunday Times, are having a drink. We were later joined by Mandla Ncube, a friend of ours and one of the stars of the Jozi Diaries last year.

Three ladies later came to sit at our table for the simple reason that the News Café was packed and there were no seating spaces available. The boys engaged them in discussion as the drinks flowed.

After a few hours, the girls made their goodbyes and exchanged numbers with the boys – but they didn’t appear to have settled their bill.

Ntuli, a recipient of one of the numbers, assured us that the waiters were fully aware that the bills were seperate. Big mistake!

When our bill finally came, horror! The bills had been combined. Or to put it better, they were never seperated.

The waiter simply told us: “I thought you guys were together.”

We paid amid much acrimony. ‘Ilife yase Jozi/Kuyasheshwa lapha mfana’, goes the lyrics of a Brothers of Peace song!

I departed with Xundu shortly after headed for a drinking hole called Esibayeni in Park Town.

The place is in the middle of a residential area and the profile of the patrons suggests they are low income earners to middle-class workers.

If you have your prejudices about crime in South Africa this place is a hair-raiser, the moment you step through the door.

Xundu has no problems blending in, but I struggle to go through my first beer. I was not scared, but just not encouraged to have another drink here.

We departed and headed for Randburg. There is a new club – the boys call it indawo yamaNigerian – near the popular Malasha with very good pool tables and usually a very competent DJ.

Xundu is not such a bad pool player, but against me, he was soundly routed.

He is off to his home town of Port Elizabeth tomorrow. We depart just before 2am, another day gone by.