2010: If not SA, who then?

We have been riding this roller-coaster train since South Africa’s announcement as the host of the 2010 World Cup finals. It seems, however, that as the “rainbow nation”, we are yet to agree on whether we would like to see this beautiful country of ours deliver the showpiece to the world.

Though one concurs that democracy provides a fully protected right for one to express one’s opinion without any intimidation whatsoever, it must be said that some of the excuses provided to substantiate the anti-2010 campaign have been nothing less than annoying.

One would have expected that as a nation — Team South Africa — we would all be pulling in one direction to ensure that this tournament becomes a milestone that drags us further away from our ugly history, and closer towards the prosperous, non-racial society we aspire to be.

At one point there was a petition website somewhere on the web requesting signatures for Fifa to take the World Cup away from South Africa, apparently because the government was failing to deal with crime. I asked myself whether the opinions of the majority our people were considered when setting up in this “petition” because many do not have access to the internet. This smacked of a rotten apartheid mentality where the minority elite believed they had a God-given right to decide on the wishes of the majority. It just cannot be right!

It has been incredibly exhausting to listen to all these excuses, ranging from the fear of “black” people blowing vuvuzelas in Greenpoint to the argument that the 2010 budget could be better spent fighting poverty.

With the tournament approximately 700 days away, maybe it is time the anti-2010-brigade tells us:

a) If South Africa is not fit to host the event, which country deserves it?
b) How does that particular country compare with South Africa in terms of its “deserved” right to host the event?