Will the World Cup transform SA?
First - a prediction. This is going to be the friendliest World Cup anyone can remember. The atmosphere here - subdued for so long - has suddenly exploded into the deafening, exuberant fever of a township party.
There will also be some typically African chaos - transport going wrong, things starting late, VIPs stuck in traffic. But nothing major.
This is a milestone for the country - proof that the rainbow nation is still capable of miracles. It will help to change the way people see the whole continent - not dramatically perhaps. But it is an important reminder of how much is going right here, as well as wrong.
Will the tournament transform South Africa?
The pessimists will point to places like Nelspruit - a town now saddled with a giant, pointless, expensive stadium, surrounded by people who still have no jobs or decent education. Four weeks of football, and a few celebrity campaigns are not going to solve this country's daunting problems.
But the realists will argue that the World Cup was never meant to fix South Africa. Its role is more catalytic - it's forced people to do necessary things - like upgrading airports and fixing roads - years faster than they would otherwise have done.
Just as important - but far harder to measure - is the way these next few weeks will bring people and races closer together. I've seen it happening already.
Maybe it's just papering over the cracks... the power of football is easy to exaggerate. A post-tournament hangover is a real worry.
But right now, this fractious nation is proud, confident and more united that it's been for years.
I’m 
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~23~RS~)
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Andrew:
I am hopeful that the World Cup transforms the people and communities of South Africa...
(d)
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My answer is yes it will and we all expect that. However is not easy to argue with the media frenzy. In terms of the money how it has been spend; it was fully spend in the right ways and on the right things. I sense on your article some European way of marginalization Africa as it’s well known on your traditional ways of expression.
You said “typically African chaos” these European way of expression won’t be formatted from your minds beside by seen such huge investments on infrastructures on the African soil as the South African government did and doing. I believe that good infrastructure do pay back, and I am sure that those who saw things like when India was looking for a country to host their lucrative IPL last year, India had to choose South Africa over many western nations who went such depth to get the Indians, I am sure that people now will start thinking twice and your typically African issue will be things of the past.
I am sure that those like you who will see what has been done and what Africans can do on their countries will now start double check your vocabularies. Concern to the amount of money has been spent IMF said just recently that the money was spent in the right awayhttp. http://www.news24.com/Galleries/Video/Videos/South%20Africa/IMF%20assesses%20World%20Cup/c2eda9eb42b64de0b2d3a69415034dd8/IMF-assesses-World-Cup
Plus the whole expenditure of the world cup is under 5% of the budget of the year. South Africa normally spends most of the budget on education, social development and on the health of the country and these three things still gets their normal share. And to those critics who used to say FIFA will lose money, it has just come out that FIFA is about to make 1.2 billion Dollars while in the last world cup FIFA made only 900M dollars. However, I have to agree that is not easy since here we are talking with people who don’t want hear anything good from anyone beside them and in their countries.
The media have embarked on South Africa and making sure that they only talk bad and present a wrong image from the country. This is not new; we all saw how the European media went after China particularly in the time of the last Olympic Games. Up to now they make sure that none knows anything good from China, so this is what is going on with the western media on the South African world cup. In the last few days we will be bombed by thousands of critics and controversies from South Africa on the western media.
If in your view a giant stadiums surround by poor people is a bad thing; in the last hundreds years we survived to lived with island of extremely rich whites surround by sea of poorer Africans.
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I think it will but the changes won't be massive. It will take time i just hope they utilise the stadiums better and not fall into the same trap that befell Australia and Greece (during previous olympics). They have to move the local teams into the new stadiums and host competitions like for example Southern Africa atlethics etc.. the main thing is to keep the stadiums active and encourage local trade in the areas.
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Is it possible for the world to just celebrate with us? lets take the world cup for what it is. We did not say it will fix all the problems we have, did we? I dont think the world fully understand what this world cup means to us but how could they when they are so fixed in analysing it and speculating more than anything else.
all that we want to do is to celebrate this history in the making. for us to pull it off will be something talked about from generation to generation. We want to show the world that there is more to Africa than wars, poverty ect.. the potential we have to do great things. THIS IS OUR TIME JUST LET IT BE.
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Victory has already come to South Africa...the world cup may not solve the country's problems, but it has done something much more. It has united a nation like never before. I am only nineteen and like many other young people had thought of eventually leaving the country to make a living somewhere else, but the past few months have instilled such a proudly South African and African spirit in me that now I want to do anything I possibly can to build forth on this flourishing country. When I see my country being praised in international media I truly feel proud, I feel a part of it all!! I come from a very small and conservative town, but the spirit and excitement I have felt and seen here has showed me what being proud is all about! So even if the problems will not magically dissapear it brought hope back to Africans that anything is truly possible and that is the building blocks needed to take South Africa and Africa as a whole to whole new heights!
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In a word NO.
when the teams and their fans go home South Africa will once again be a forgotten African country tetering on the brink of being thrid world.
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As a resident of Johannesburg, nearly halfway through the tournament, I haven't noticed much of the 'typically African chaos' you expected... the reality is that the world cup hardly stretches this country's capabilities. I've hardly noticed the 500,000 odd fans - and, yes, some ARE odder than others :-)
This type of tournament is useful in that it focuses the executive's attention beyond petty political egos and the parochial interests of otherwise-unemployable politicians on real delivery. A previous minor example of the success of this was evident some years ago when the housing developed on the border of Alexandra township & used to house the teams during South Africa's hosting of the All Africa Games, was built to spec, on schedule and delivered to deserving low-income residents shortly after the games.
If only similar focus could be cast upon the other real challenges of this country, much of the backlog could be addressed in a short space of time. Education, Health, Employment and Housing have all suffered from the well-intended but uninformed and therefore often damaging efforts of headstrong or downright ignorant politicians ('deployed cadres' rather than necessarily good managers) from within South Africa's ruling party.
Perhaps we should do the Olympics next...
Now, back to watch the 2nd half...
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