Will World Cup bring South Africans closer?
Reuters - Friday 26 June 2009, 12:02
Beyond the angst about whether
South Africa will pull off a successful World Cup next
year is a more profound question - can the competition bring
the races closer 15 years after the end of apartheid?
Organisers of the competition, Africa's biggest sports
event, are hoping for a moment akin to the legendary appearance
of Nelson Mandela in a Springbok shirt when South Africa won the
1995 rugby World Cup in Johannesburg.
That gesture forged an iconic symbol of national unity from
a sport passionately loved by whites and had a lasting impact in
calming their raw fears a year after majority rule began.
The nation has come a long way since then, but distrust and
tensions persist between the races and, in a sports-mad nation,
successful staging of the most-watched competition on earth
could mark a new watershed.
"The 1995 rugby World Cup helped establish South Africa as
the 'Rainbow Nation'. The 2010 FIFA World Cup will see that
nation come of age," organising committee chief executive Danny
Jordaan told Reuters.
He said the current Confederations Cup tournament, seen as a
dress rehearsal for next year's extravaganza and watched by
multiracial crowds, had already shown "the capability that
soccer has in bridging the divide between different races...
"It is my belief that the FIFA World Cup will have an even
greater effect."
Jordaan is not alone in trusting in the potential of the
tournament to have a major impact at home, weakening divisions
and misunderstanding and also drawing more whites into football - traditionally a black South Africans' game.
"You can be a fairly right-wing white Afrikaner and still
feel an immense sense of pride when you see your nation is
hosting what is the biggest show on earth, even if you are a
die-hard rugby fan," said Richard Maguire, editor of South
Africa's football magazine Kick-Off.
"I think definitely the World Cup will have an impact in
bringing people together and developing a sense of unity and
national pride," he told Reuters.
CAVEATS
But while there is widespread optimism and excitement is
building, analysts warn the impact should not be over-estimated.
The only real way to bring South Africans closer is to end
the stark wealth disparities that are among the reasons for one
of the world's worst rates of violent crime.
"You can feel good about all this stuff in a stadium but on
a Monday morning, when it is raining on your little tin shack
held together with pieces of plastic , you may not be feeling so
good about South Africa," Maguire said.
"There are those harsh realities underneath that no World
Cup is going to take away."
Ebrahim Fakir, an analyst with the Electoral Institute of
Southern Africa, said the 1995 rugby final occurred in the
unique context of the recent end of apartheid and Mandela's
enormous personal charisma.
But much of the effect was transitory as those factors waned
and Mandela retired from active politics.
The World Cup could have some unifying impact, "but the
caveat is that it may be far too emphemeral, as it has been in
the past," Fakir said.
"It will go some way in addressing some of the symbolic
social relations questions but it won't go the whole way. That
requires both an attitudinal shift as well as a material shift
in the distribution of wealth."
The World Cup has significantly boosted economic activity.
The construction sector associated with road, rail and stadium
building is a rare bright light in the first recession for
nearly two decades in Africa's biggest economy.
Flourishing tourism is expected to receive a fillip from the
competition with nearly half a million fans expected, drawn by
comparatively low prices and the lure of combining football with
a safari or beach break.
But Fakir warned that many of the benefits in job and wealth
creation to iron out economic inequality could be short-lived.
"Addressing structural inequality is a different question. I
don't think it will do that," he said.
And while the Springboks won in 1995, South Africa's football
team, nicknamed Bafana Bafana (the boys), are likely to struggle
to do really well in 2010, reducing local appeal.
"The tournament will lose something if Bafana are
underperforming and it will gain a whole lot more if they
perform well," Maguire said. "But I don't think it will make or
break the tournament."
Even if more whites become football fans, including young
Afrikaans-speakers whipped up by World Cup fever, it might be
difficult to sustain their enthusiasm for long because of the
mediocre quality of local club matches. Already whites prefer
televised international games to local leagues.
And despite the surprised enthusiasm of some white fans at
the Confederations Cup, where they have revelled in the
atmosphere and classy football, others remain cynical about
2010.
"I am not sure the World Cup will bring all strands of
society together in one rainbow mix ... Black people will watch
the World Cup in their bars, white people will watch it at home
in their lounges," said Felicity Davis, a financial analyst.
"If we win the World Cup, I'll say 'yeah well done', but I
won't be riding around tooting my car horn all night. I'll leave
that to the Lebanese," retired carpenter and Springbok rugby fan
Michael Du Plessis, 62, said in a Bloemfontein bar.