As I write this column, I’m dizzy with all the discussions I’ve had with South Africans and articles I’ve read about the World Cup. Curiously, the discourse seems to follow the same trajectory: it starts off with insightful commentary on why the event will or won’t benefit South Africa and then moves on to melodramatic parallels with the country’s issues.

Sarah goes soccer!

Sarah Osman (1980) was born in Sudan, and has been living in the Netherlands for the past 11 years. She’s been working in the field of development cooperation for the past 3 years, and has recently decided to take her skills and knowledge back to Africa. Her first stop is Cape Town, South Africa. After her column Wanted! Home in Africa for RNW, Sarah goes soccer.  In this latest column, she will share with us her experiences of the build-up to the 2010 World Cup in Cape Town. Not the mainstream news, but background stories that often get missed in the euphoria of the big event.

By Sarah Osman, Cape Town

‘White elephants’
While restaurants are reaping the business opportunity by offering soccer burgers, pizzas and salads, some Capetonians are taking the event as the basis to start debates on the country’s health, education, political and economic systems. A pre-World Cup buzz-phrase these days is ‘white elephants’, a tongue-in-cheek term used to refer to the mega stadiums, such as Green Point Stadium in Cape Town that hosted its first opening game last Saturday.

“Will these buildings be turned into homes and hospitals for the needy after the World Cup? I don’t think so, they will just stand there, big and empty” said one South African to me. I understood where he was coming from, but I found the logic a bit hard to follow.

“Nobody ever claimed that the World Cup was going to solve South Africa’s problems, it’s just a good economic door-opener and creates a positive image of Africa” I said. I then suggested we start coming up with ideas on how to make use of the venues for other purposes, but he wasn’t interested.   

Disinformation
There’s plenty of anger that funds were wasted on the World Cup, but this might be related to the disinformation regarding the plans for the event. There are some things I didn’t know until now. For example, Cape Town is actually spending 12 billion rands (1.1 billion euros) on upgrading the city’s public transport system and infrastructure as opposed to the 4.45 billion rands (424 million euros)  that it has spent on building Green Point Stadium.

The white elephants will be there, but public infrastructure will be better, clearly a long term benefit. I’m telling you, Cape Town’s train station is starting to look really good. It might even encourage Capetonians to use buses and trains instead of their cars, leading to less congestion in the city.

The critics might be right to insist that other social services should have come first; but a person being able to get to work due to improved infrastructure is also a worthwhile endeavour. In other words, these infrastructural upgrades will also benefit the less privileged.

Moving beyond the race card
I’m starting to feel a bit sorry for white South Africans because they are accused of bigotry every time they question what the World Cup will leave behind.

“If it was a rugby World Cup, you’d never hear anything negative coming out of their mouths. Football is the sport that blacks support, that’s why they want to jinx it with their negativity” said one black South African.

I thought that was a bit below the belt. Ironically, privileged South Africans seem to be very concerned about the plight of less privileged South Africans vis-á-vis the World Cup, like in this article. The good news is that South Africans, of all forms,  are engaging in some important discussions which will probably lead to some sound plans post-World Cup.