Khabisi Mosunkutu, the minister for community safety in South Africa's Gauteng province, casts a glance over the wetlands that border Mofolo Park in Soweto and sighs. "We used to hide there and hold secret meetings during the apartheid era," he says. "It was hard to imagine then that one day we’d be holding a party here and getting ready for a carnival for the soccer World Cup!"
He looks over the other side of the park in disbelief, at the riot of colours in the form of giant puppets, hundreds of children from neighbouring villages and towns and dancers getting ready for a two-day carnival to celebrate South Africa's hosting of the FIFA World Cup 2010.
Soccer City – the state-of-the art stadium shaped like a calabash, an African pot – where the finals of the World Cup will be played, lies a few kilometres from Soweto, the massive black township outside Johannesburg, site of many protests against the apartheid regime.
An excited Sello Mothibi, a traditional performer, fastens the ends of his Xhosa skirt. "I had to be here [in the carnival] so I could tell my children I played a part in making the World Cup a success,” says the 23-year-old. “I don't want them to learn how it was for us to host the World Cup from newspapers - I want them to hear from me what it was like to be here!"
His eyes light up – he reveals he’s bought tickets for two matches, the cheapest he could get, at 120 rands each. “For not two very important games, but just to get to feel the vibe!" He tightens his head-wrap and grins. It is cold and Mothibi and the other members of his team shiver as they rub lotions on their bare torsos. "We don't mind the cold," quips one of the members, grinning. "This is an opportunity for us artists!"
In an atmosphere of gloom due to the recession, which has sliced off almost a million jobs from the South African economy within a year, the World Cup has come to mean a lot more than a moment of pride. "This is just the beginning, artists like us will find more jobs like this, the world is looking at us," says Mothibi hopefully.
But in the past few weeks, there has been a growing realisation that most of the jobs created by the World Cup are temporary and restricted to the construction sector. As if that was not enough to drive South Africans to despair, people have begun to doubt if all the promised plane-loads of tourists will arrive.
Many homeowners spent hundreds of thousands of rands in renovating their properties in the hope of letting them out to football tourists. "But it has not happened yet, perhaps because of the economic problems in many European countries," says Meryl Landbrooke, one such homeowner. Some blame the African National Congress's youth leader, Julius Malema, who, over the last few months, has revived the song "Shoot the Boer [the farmer]", made popular by the ANC during the struggle against apartheid. Malema also threw a BBC journalist out of a press conference after attacking him racially.
Malema’s conduct has been widely reported in European media. "I think many people have been put off by that and they think they will be attacked here," says a shop-owner in the upscale Sandton in Johannesburg.
But in the week before the World Cup began, the nation seemed to be getting in the mood to party. "South Africa has become another world," remarks Tsholofelo Papo, an official with the department of sports, arts, culture and recreation. "Two weeks ago we did not seem to be in the spirit of things. The Nigerians were telling us, 'It seems like we are hosting the World Cup, not you'!”
Now national flags have sprung up on cars, shops and even houses, thanks to the ever-enterprising Chinese, who’ve also kept street vendors supplied with cheaper versions of World Cup memorabilia being sold in the upmarket shopping malls. "We should make the most of it even if business does not pick up - it is the World Cup," remarks a trader.
Football is seen as a primarily black sport in South Africa, but even white South African mothers, prompted by their children, have got into the spirit of the sport and the event. Children are driving the demand for flags and other memorabilia fashioned in the national colours of South Africa and other teams.
Thomas Wood, 14, has converted the ledge of his mother's back window into a World Cup display. He has got a vuvuzela - a blowing horn popular during football matches in South Africa – flags, sunglasses decorated with national colours and a ball with all the participating countries' flags imprinted on it. "This is my homage. If Bafana, Bafana (the South African football team) does not go far, then I am rooting for Ivory Coast!" he says.
The growing love of the white population for football is a pleasing phenomenon. "Sport is a great unifier - people from all races, backgrounds come together for sports,” says Mosunkutu. “Remember what Madiba [Nelson Mandela] did with the Rugby World Cup?" South Africa hosted the Rugby World Cup in 1995, soon after the country had freed itself of the shackles of apartheid. Rugby was then widely acknowledged as a white man's sport. Mandela, then the president of the country, used the occasion to publicly support the predominantly white South African rugby team and made a significant breakthrough in easing racial tensions in the young democracy. Mandela's triumph has been immortalised on celluloid in the movie Invictus.
The excitement of the first African World Cup is palpable across the borders, in countries as far north as Egypt. "It is not only South Africa's World Cup, it is our World Cup!" says a tour guide from Cairo. "But what is the security situation like? We are very concerned about that."
High walls, electrified fences and private security cars with armed security men on the roads underline the fact that crime rates are high in South Africa, but many locals like to shrug this off. "It is all in your attitude - you can be mugged anywhere in the world," says one South African fan.
Gauteng's security minister Mosunkutu is optimistic. "Football is such a sport and the World Cup is such a big event for us that even the most hardened criminals won't attack people," he says hopefully.
But, of course, the government cannot rely on the criminals' goodwill to secure the country. More than 40,000 police officers have been assigned to provide security during the World Cup, according to Nathi Mthethwa, the national minister of police. Interpol has endorsed South Africa's security plans for the tournament and there are no terrorist threats that loom over the event, Mthethwa announced a week ago.
"This is Africa's time," says Martin Ndlovu, a teenager from Hillbrow, a Johannesburg neighbourhood known for its high levels of crime. "Me, I feel very proud - we will succeed. The world will see us and know we exist!"
This story did not appear in print
