SA scores a spectacular own goal

Shortly after the 2006 World Cup in Germany, a team of Fifa heavyweights visited the hosts of the next edition of the tournament in order to lay down the rules. South Africa, they told us, does not own the 2010 World Cup. Rather, it belongs to global football’s governing body and the international football community.

So there was bitter irony in the government’s decision to humiliate the country, which is now under the international spotlight because of the 2010 World Cup. No country in the world has produced as many Nobel Laureates as South Africa, so the idea to host a 2010-themed Peace Conference with three of our living laureates, the Nobel Committee and the Dalai Lama was a public-relations masterpiece.

However, government’s decision to bar the Tibetan spiritual leader, made a mockery of the whole purpose of the conference which was, among other things, to celebrate South Africa’s peaceful transition to constitutional democracy.

The event would have been used to discuss ways of using football to fight racism and xenophobia ahead of the World Cup.

As the FW de Klerk Foundation noted, events such as the 2010 World Cup –- and presumably all activities associated with it — require a spirit of universality.

In defending the government’s decision, spokesperson Themba Masebe said “a visit now by the Dalai Lama would move the focus from South Africa onto issues in Tibet”. Wrong! It has simply put South Africa under the glare of the international community for all the wrong reasons.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said he will condemn the government’s behaviour as “disgraceful, in line with our country’s abysmal record at the United Nations Security Council, a total betrayal of our struggle history”.

Shame on us!