Part Three

Another 8 teams have fallen by the wayside since the last post, but Ghana is now carrying the hope of all Africans. Suddenly there is a revitalization of soccer enthusiasm among the South Africans who still care to keep up with the happening – just when I thought the chance to experience the world cup had been buried with the elimination of Bafana Bafana. However, it does not seem like Ghana’s success provides any ramifications in the socio-political spectrum of the South African population. I visited the Soweto and Johannesburg fan parks during a couple of the matches that were staged this past week, the attendance were dismal. There were just over a couple of hundred people at each park, compared to thousands who thronged these large screen venues during the initial weeks. Germany’s parks really set the bar very high in 2006 because they all maintained huge numbers of fans throughout the world cup, even after host nation was knocked out by France.
I interviewed two heads of small-scale accommodation businesses, one in Rustenburg (north-west of Johannesburg) and another in Bloemfontein this past weekend. Both towns played host to big games, USA/Ghana and Germany/England respectively, which put pressure on their businesses since all teams have a huge number of travelling fans. Both expressed some degree of satisfaction with the way their businesses have benefited during the world cup. However, they still expressed disappointment over the way contracts were awarded by FIFA’s hospitality partner, MATCH, citing a few irregularities especially towards smaller businesses.
The CEO of ESKOM pleaded with the workers’ union Thursday encouraging them that they must shelve the strike plan. The union is adamant that they are going ahead with the strike because negotiations have been stalled some more for long enough. The worry has now extended beyond the country’s image during this world cup, but also to the effect that loadshedding could have in the ordinary citizen’s life…at least the CEO cited that! On the other hand, the economic consultancy group economics.co.za have reiterated the fact that the employment situation in South Africa is desperate – is the world cup doing enough, or will it, to help the central authorities deal with this issue that bedevils the country? Can Pretoria live up to its political discourse of addressing the plight of over 20 million unemployed South Africans?