Having just spent the past few hours reading about South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was established following the Apartheid to provide a form of social justice and pave the way for a brighter future, this month I thought it apt to concentrate on the nation that will be hosting the competition in a matter of 114 days and enquire as to whether it is both physically and mentally ready to welcome the world for a few weeks.
As aforementioned, South Africa will be the first nation from the African continent to host these games and although I do not like the association of politics with football, in South Africa's case, politics is regrettably unavoidable. Still in the process of restructuring the country after the horrors of the Apartheid era, South Africa has come a long way from the oppressive 1960s, 70s and 80s. Yet, the question needs to be asked, just how far has it come?
In one of the articles I was reading, about the TRC, it stated the commonly held view that "Johannesburg is the most dangerous city in the world". Crime rates in South Africa are certainly one of the highest in the world; the murder rate per 100,000 is 38.6% in comparison to that of 1.43% for England and Wales. South Africa also has one of the highest rates of rape in the world. What is the point of all these statistics? Well, it's to show that South Africa still has a long way to go in the process of reconstruction; crime is still an important issue, so much so that the security company G4S has refused to work at the games. The security of the players, officials, fans etc. has to be South Africa's number one priority if they are to succeed in pulling off a spectacular tournament. Danny Jordaan has ensured the world's media, that he and his team have done everything they can to make the tournament as safe as possible. 1.3 billion Rand has been invested by the government for security purposes only and the South African government has promised that this is sufficient funding for top-of-the range, sophisticated security measures.
It seems a long time ago that South Africa isolated itself from the sporting world and refused to allow multi-racial teams to play in the country. A few decades later and it is getting ready to welcome the whole world - including teams of players from all different races, cultures, walks of life - to come together in the name of football. This is significant in itself, in that it is representing the new post-Apartheid South Africa, emerging from the ashes of war, in a bid to try and engage with the rest of the world in order to make up for all those years of isolation. South Africa has progressed in its racial equality movements but this is not to say that racism and the strong prejudices of time gone by, have been entirely eradicated in South African society. Nevertheless, South Africa wants to show the world that it has been able to change and emerge from apartheid a stronger nation. In my view, hosting one of the world's greatest and most celebrated tournaments, couldn't be a better platform to do so.
Danny Jordaan himself was an anti-Apartheid activist and he perfectly captured the expectations of the nation of South Africa, when he stated that first the dream was for a "non-racial, democratic society...then, as sports fans, that one day South Africa would be a member of Fifa, after being expelled in 1976. And finally, we dreamt that the country would host the World Cup one day".
South Africa still has a long way to go in fulfilling its visions for the future, but football, and sport in general, has that special power to somehow bring people together in their shared love and enthusiasm for the game. Expectations are high and thus South Africa must deliver on behalf of its people and on behalf of the rest of the world.
