United for a common cause?

Barring an act of God, exactly two years from now, Soccer City will be the centre of the universe with billions of people tuning in to experience the grand finale of the world’s biggest single-code sporting event.

On July 11, 2010 when the World Cup final is played, South Africans will hopefully look back at 2008 as the darkest chapter in the 2010 World Cup campaign — a period of near-calamities which threatened to derail this country’s biggest ever project. We have, after all endured rolling black-outs, labour disputes, an outbreak of xenophobia, the biggest political instability since the country’s first all-race elections, more of the same on the crime front, renewed chaos in Zimbabwe and, of course, FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s admission that there is, after all, a Plan B for 2010.

But there’s also much to be hopeful about and grateful for. Most stadium construction projects are on target, the xenophobic issue appears to have been contained, major security initiatives are already being rolled out ahead of the tournament, and it’s highly unlikely that Robert Mugabe will be wielding any real power in two years’ time.

FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke says the country is firmly on track with its preparations and he has, once again, reminded us that we are not the only hosts of mega sporting events who have been under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Certainly, we would do well to learn from the lessons of the 2004 Olympic Games where there were always concerns over whether Athens was capable of pulling it off. Preparations were dogged by major construction delays and bitter in-fighting between key decision makers. In the four years leading up to the Olympics, untold damage was done to that city’s reputation.

But, the clouds finally parted, the flame was lit and the Greeks confounded their critics by hosting a truly magnificent and trouble-free spectacle.

South Africa, which has successfully hosted so many major sporting events, is more than capable of doing the same as it prepares for its biggest challenge since 1994. But it remains to be seen whether we are in for a 24-month roller-coaster ride or whether Team South Africa — government, big business, political parties, labour unions and millions of ordinary South Africans — will remain on course, united for this common cause.