General view of Durban's 2010 Moses Mabhida Soccer stadium in April
Posted on 06/13/2008 11:03:10 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
A giant calabash, the traditional African cooking pot, is rising from the red earth between Johannesburg and Soweto. Two thousand workmen toil into the night to make sure that the vast structure is ready to welcome 94,000 spectators at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, two years from this week.
Across the country, foundations are being laid for the first African cup and the biggest party in South Africa since the fall of apartheid.
The Government has seized on the occasion to sink billions of pounds into a creaking infrastructure built for white minority rule but hopelessly inadequate for today's African superpower. In the townships and ministries there is palpable excitement that the cup may finally mark the coming of age of a tender democracy.
Whispering on the sidelines, however, officials and ordinary South Africans fear that the showcase event may yet be overshadowed by violence or the inability of this new-build infrastructure to cope. As one official said: “It could all collapse around our ears.”
Two weeks of xenophobic violence, when mobs burnt or hacked to death 62 foreigners and drove thousands from their homes, has left some people wondering whether South Africa is ready to welcome the world.
“The fact of the matter is that at the moment the people from other countries are the target of this violence,” said Bishop Paul Verryn. “Wouldn't you think very carefully if you were a soccer player or thinking of coming here to watch? Wouldn't you think that you might become a target?”
At a temporary shelter for some of the 100,000 homeless, Carrene Sarkin, a volunteer aid worker, said: “I am scared by the prospect of the World Cup coming here. Between crime and what is happening here, it scares me to bring foreigners here, for their safety.”
The violence is only one hurdle. Some areas have almost no public transport. The country has been paralysed by power cuts after decades of under-investment. By 2010 it will throw open its borders to poor neighbouring countries - which some say will exacerbate tensions.
The construction of five football stadiums costing 8.4 billion rands (£500million) is cause for concern. Soccer City has been held up by the delay of girders from Italy while, the Government noted, the stadiums in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town are “facing challenges of meeting their deadlines”.Ministers insist there is no crisis. “This challenge that we have faced with these so-called xenophobic attacks are not a reflection of ordinary South Africans,” Jeff Radebe, the Transport Minister, told The Times. “There are a few rotten apples that have tarnished the reputation of our country.” The World Cup presented a “revolution” of upgrades, he said.
The roads are getting R70 billion of investment; R20 billion is being spent on expanding airports in Johannesburg and Cape Town, with a new airport in Durban; and R18 billion on the railways, including a high-speed line linking Johannesburg airport, tourist areas and Pretoria.
The works are creating 100,000 jobs. “The major challenge is the issue of skills, the shortage of engineers in South Africa,” Mr Radebe said. The police are hiring 55,000 extra officers, the army is on standby and 45,000 additional police reservists are being drafted in to guard against violence.
Superintendent Vishnu Naidoo, who has been involved with the security plan, had a message for England fans. “They should not be deterred by a minority of people involved in this callous, unacceptable behaviour from coming to South Africa to enjoy one of the world's greatest events.”
Every calabash needs a fire pit. Everyone in South Africa hopes that the players on the pitch, not crime or chaos, will provide the spark.
The US will host it again....no problem.
Why not Australia? They've never hosted a World Cup before.
The Guardian Angels in South Africa intend to be on Patrol for World Cup in 2010. With any luck, I will be there with them, too!
It sounds like a real hoot!
General view of Durban's 2010 Moses Mabhida Soccer stadium in April
Har! LMBO!!!
No Westerners are actually crazy enough to go to the games unless they have a team of bodyguards protecting them.
> No Westerners are actually crazy enough to go to the games unless they have a team of bodyguards protecting them.
(grin!) let’s just call it my Midlife Crisis, ay!
Actually, from what I read, FIFA believes that South Africa will have the security, safety and facilities issues well under control.
If you do go, if you see red jackets and red berets, that’ll be us!
Also, I’m sure that having Zimbabwe as one of their neighbors with all of the problems that they continue to have doesn’t help South Africa either with their World Cup bid.
Joao Silva for The New York Times Construction workers on the outskirts of Soweto, South Africa, worked earlier this month on preparing a stadium for the 2010 World Cup of soccer. In South Africa, a race is on to get ready for the games.
The theme for the FIFA games will be a twenty or thirty hotels around each stadium which will have fest tents adjacent to them....with guards surrounding the whole place. Special buses will take the guys from the hotel to the games....with fest tents at the stadium surrounded by barb wire. The idiot fans who go on their own and stay at non-protected hotels....will be subject to robbery and death. My personal estimate is at least twenty visiting fans will be found dead by the end of the games. Another 3,000 will be robbed and likely beaten. FIFA will never again have a cup in Africa....for the next 100 years.
Just 20 fans dead? That seem a bit low to me. But anyway this is going to be embarassing to South Africa and FIFA. At the same time, I’m sure everyone is curious to see how the whole thing plays out.
And they have actually had twice as long to prepare as any other nation would for the world cup. There was a scandal involving bribes to the world cup organizers by the germans when they received the award of the 2006 world cup. South Africa which had been in the running raised hell after and so they were quickly rewarded the 2010 WC as a consolation. That’s how behind they are.
Its going to be a disaster. But ofcourse the MSM and liberals will all paint it as South Africa’s coming out party no matter how savage and 3rd world the country is spiraling towards. And no matter what, they will always blame it all on the whites.
Always the damn whiteys. Why, left to their own devices, the africanhyphenafricans would have evolved S.A. into a glowing example of non-European pride....like Rhodesi..er,uh, Zimbabwe or Nigeria or Detroit.
Son and his army buddies plan on attending.
Done this four times so far.
Cape Town is without a doubt a dangerous place. That said, you can get the true oil from this website.
Me, I'm going in 2010.
South Africa being awarded the right to host the 2010 WC was a political decision. FIFA was determined to award the WC to an African nation. Unfortunately the only country on the continent with any kind of functioning infrastructure needed to host the event is South Africa. FIFA officials have known all along that South Africa is riddled with violent crime from one end of the country to another but their own misplaced white guilt led to this awful decision.
I read an article about a year ago in which FIFA officials admitted that at the most they expect to attract about 1/3 of the amount of soccer fans to South Africa compared to the number of fans that traveled to Germany. In other words they admit that they are going to make anywhere near the amount of money by having South Africa host the cup compared to Germany.
Eurotrash bureaucrats (ie FIFA) don't make sound businessmen.
Just one big happy cauldron of multiculturalism!
I read an article about a year ago in which FIFA officials admitted that at the most they expect to attract about 1/3 of the amount of soccer fans to South Africa compared to the number of fans that traveled to Germany. In other words they admit that they are NOT going to make anywhere near the amount of money by having South Africa host the cup compared to Germany
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