The World Cup in South Africa
Travel/ERASMUSPublished June 22, 2009 at 14:13 No CommentsI’m excited about the prospect of South Africa hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup. This will be the first Soccer World Cup to be hosted by an African country, and people in South Africa have World Cup fever. The challenge for South Africa now is to tackle problems such as crime, poverty and lack of infrastructure.
If we are to host a really memorable soccer world cup we need to build world class stadiums. Some of the old stadiums in Johannesburg had to be re-vamped while stadiums in other cities, like Durban or Port Elizabeth had to be built. All the stadiums look beautiful and have a large seating capacity. One has to wonder whether in a country where corruption is endemic how much money went into the back pockets of business men and officials?
The second biggest hassle will be providing visitors with a working public transport system. Right now the only public transport systems are the mini buses, which are often not road worthy. These vehicles stop at any road or junction to pick up passengers. To take the right taxi you need to know which hand signal to make. If the taxi driver is going your way they will stop for you.
Since any foreigner would find this situation confusing, maybe even dangerous if they took a wrong turn, the government is building the Gautrain link. This rapid train is meant to link Pretoria and Johannesburg with the airport. Since not much work has been done on the project to date I think it would be advisable to rent a car.
Recently, some South African citizens have banded together and attacked foreigners, many are illegal imigrants. This wave of xenophobic has forced thousands of people to flee from their homes. Some have returned home, but many remain seeking shelter in abandoned buildings or churches. This sad situation is thought to have happened because of South Africans blaming foreigners for an increase in crime and for taking away their jobs. This incident has damaged South Africa’s reputation internationally. Some people fear that the international community will prohibit South Africa from hosting the world cup if this problem repeats itself. If we are to repair our reputation we must keep all people, illegal or otherwise, safe within our borders.
I wish I could say for sure that this will be an incredibly proud moment for South Africa marked by jubilant celebrations. It is still a possibility that this will be a failure marred by corruption charges, crime against foreigners and inefficient transport co-ordination. My hope for South Africa is that on this day it can rise above its past failings and provide all the tourists with a well safe well organized event.
Laura Arnold
