Reporters hoping for the death of South Africa will eventually lose the battle

A country with a GDP higher than European countries such as Portugal, Ukraine, Finland, Czech republic, Romania, Slovakia, Georgia and Ireland still has a lot of doubters and haters around the world about its capability to host the world cup in 2010. Some of the reasons are masked behind prejudice and ignorance. South Africa is judged by many not on its merits however, it’s judged on that basis of rumours. This is very unfair and reporters from the western world need o realise that South Africa has the capacity to host a world cup spending $4bn in a recessionary environment without borrowing cant be done by many countries. Interestingly, Ireland a country still grappling with sectarianism and the negative effects of a recession such as unemployment sky rocketing inhabits some of the most fierce some doom mongers, critics and haters of the rainbow nation. May be, it’s the South African expats making all the noise, of course they are part of those who still hesitate that an African nation can pull off the big one. Most of them point to crime as one of the reasons as to why South Africa isn’t fit for the world cup. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2009/0611/1224248612040.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/jul/07/louise-taylor-south-africa-2010-world-cup?commentpage=1


News reports such as the above have largely contributed in the hesitation in believing that South Africa can host a successful event. Nonetheless they are reporting about the smoke but not the fire. The fundamentals about a successful world cup in Africa are clear. The new train (Gautrain), road improvements and news stadia are of high quality better than the one’s any of those countries can offer, 10 world class stadia. For example, the stadium in Cape Town is just the best of its kind and can only look good in front of the towering table mountain. Crime against tourists is very low though the doom mongers find it hard to believe. More than 400000 tourists will grace the African winter next June, furthermore more than 600000 tickets are already sold. In the end, news reporters will try and focus on the negatives but the world cup will be successfully held in SA and the surprise of some, the country’s image will drastically change reason being that there people all over the world who are ready to give Africa chance. If countries such as China, Malaysia qualify it’s guaranteed that people from these countries will pay a visit to the rainbow nation. So for me, am not bothered by any of the negative reports by the western media because they forget that most people don’t live in Europe.