Its time ...

The last fews days, whilst caught up in the festivities of the FIFA World Cup draw, I have experienced many thoughts and emotions ... That of frustration when listening to Sky news on Friday morning still going on about the negatives of the country ...how it takes 11 hours to get to PE from Cape Town and the constant big question mark as to whether SA will cope!? Then,the sheer excitement when feeling the vibe and energy as I drove through the centre of the city on Friday lunchtime. That of harmony when enjoying a braai on Friday evening with friends and then turning the music off while we all crowded around the TV to watch the draw result ...The feeling of pride, when I opened the news papers the next day to hear that there had been 50,000 people partying in Long street the night before and NOT ONE arrest had been made ... and then pondering whether English football fans would be quite so well behaved? My point is ... I had no idea how I was going to sum all of this up for my now over due blog entry. But then whilst scanning the online copies of the British newspapers this morning - I came across an article from a British Journalist reporting from SA, who like many media people, had now seen a taste of what South Africa was capable of . I really could not have said it better myself ....

By Oliver Holt - Chief Sports writer for Sunday Mirror reporting from Cape Town

The 32 nations are in their groups, Fifa president Sepp Blatter has finished flirting with the TV presenter and everyone seems to think England have an easy draw. But the image that remains in the memory from last night’s World Cup draw here is not the expressions on the faces of men like Fabio Capello when they discovered their team’s fate. It is the sight of Nelson Mandela, old and frail now, but still the personification of all that is dignified and fine in humanity, staring out at the star-studded audience in the Cape Town Convention Centre through a camera. His message to a sporting world salivating about who was going to play who, where and when was beautifully simple. “It’s time,” he said. It’s time for football and its supporters finally to embrace the prospect of Africa staging the biggest event in sport. Time to realise that this is going to be an event heavy with significance and symbolism, a tournament that is about more than a series of football matches. It’s about Africa taking centre stage at last, about changing perceptions of South Africa and, at least in some small ways, improving the lot of some of the people who live here. Time to stop worrying about perceived problems and start realising that this is going to be one of the greatest and most joyous celebrations of the sport there has ever been. Time to start thinking about the residents of Soweto who are so desperate to transform negative perceptions of their country that they are inviting supporters to stay with them in their homes during the tournament. That way, they can see that life in the townships is not all about murder, rape and drunkenness. That way, they can see life there can be vibrant and full of warmth and hospitality.

“You have been to Soweto,” Bareng-Bartho Kortjaas, a senior writer for the Sunday Times in South Africa told me yesterday. “Did you need a police escort? Did a black man come running after you with a machete? “Even this morning, I saw a television report from Britain saying that our stadiums are all ready but that it doesn’t matter because some of our people don’t have running water. But we never said that the World Cup would bring everybody water. We never said it would cure everything. Come on, what crime have we committed that people should say these things about us?” BBK’s right. Ever since South Africa won the right to host this tournament, there has been fear and scepticism about what would happen. Fear about crime and security. Fear about whether the stadia would be ready. Fear about whether the roads would be roadworthy. Fear born largely out of ignorance.

A few weeks ago, there were even stories that the Germany players had been told to wear bullet-proof vests. Those kinds of precautions represent a preposterous overreaction to the dangers here. So do the plans by some travel companies to put armed guards on buses carrying tourists and supporters? There is violent crime here but there will probably never be a safer time to visit South Africa than next summer. That’s why Danny Jordaan, the man who inspired South Africa’s bid, said that this week had witnessed the “death of doubt” about the country’s ability to stage a fine tournament. He has a point. Some of the new stadia, particularly the ones in Cape Town and Durban, are stunningly beautiful and ready ahead of time. The Royal Bafokeng Stadium in the village of Phokeng, where England will play their opening game against the USA, is a striking new stadium too, built on the huge profits the area earns from its platinum mines. The Stadium is two hours from Johannesburg by car. Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, where their second and third games will be played, not only have no shortage of accommodation but are close to one of the most beautiful parts of the country, The Garden Route. But however the South African team fares in the competition, this will always be their World Cup, their chance to take another step away from the pain and the division that tore it apart for such a large chunk of the 20th century.

“In years to come,” Jacob Zuma, the South African president said last night, “people in this country and on this continent will talk about ‘before 2010’ and ‘after 2010’. That’s how important it can be for us. At long last, we can welcome the world to our soil.”