A new benchmark has been set

The final whistle of the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup has blown, the visitors have departed, and the flags sticking from cars have disappeared.

After the month-long hosting of the world’s largest collective event, South Africa has returned to normal.

However, “returned” is perhaps not the right word, for South Africa will never be quite the same as it was. Normalcy itself has changed forever.

The legacy that the World Cup has left can physically be observed in the improved infrastructure on so many fronts, from public transport modes and upgraded airports to improved urban road networks and modern stadiums with the new facilities in their precincts.

Our larger local authorities that have been part of the hosting of the event were – and remain – among the foremost beneficiaries of this infrastructure legacy.

Perhaps more importantly, it has changed the way we think of ourselves as a nation and our ability to handle huge international events successfully. It has forever changed the way our country will be regarded internationally, while it may also have gone some way toward dispelling the almost traditional Africa pessimism with which our continent has been regarded by most of the world.

It would, however, be denialism not to recognise that the legacy of the 2010 World Cup has left us as a country, and local government in particular, with some important challenges in order to make the positives last.

And yes, there will also be the eternal pessimists who would almost wish that the new stadiums become white elephants and that some of the new infrastructure slips back into disrepair. One of the immediate challenges then is to ensure that this does not occur.

More importantly, the challenge is to build and expand on the new roads, transport and other infrastructure put in place for the World Cup. Indeed, some of the infrastructure, notably roads and transport, remains work in progress and the challenge is to keep the momentum going.

We have proved to ourselves and the world that we as a country can live up to high international standards. A new benchmark has been set and the challenge now is to continue living up to that higher standard.

In this, local government has a key role to play.

Piet Coetzer