Will it be satisfaction or disappointment? {writer: Staff reporter}

Will the economic realities of hosting the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup in South Africa live up to the expectations?

It is unlikely that this debate will be settled soon, if ever, since those taking part in the debate have sometimes very different points of departure and assumptions on which they base their arguments.

On the one side, there are those such as the vice-chancellor of Rhodes University, Dr Saleem Badat, who at a recent conference said the tournament would most probably disappoint in the delivery of socio-economic benefits sold to the South African public by its promoters.

On the other side of the argument, there are people such as City of Cape Town 2010 spokesperson, Pieter Cronje, who at a 2010 lecture series pointed out that the spending on infrastructure upgrades for the tournament were “long overdue” anyway.

He revealed that the public sector investment for 2010 currently stood at R11.4 billion. He argued, however, that “there is no concern about making back the money. All the 2010 infrastructural work was needed anyway – the World Cup was simply the catalyst.”

Badat, for his part, at the Highway Africa 2009 conference held at Rhodes, quoted from a Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) study that raised doubts about the development benefits to flow out of the World Cup. “The event will unfortunately fall far short of (crucial socio-economic development) objectives,” the study stated.

He said there is a need to discriminate, make judgments and separate facts from opinions, and perceptions from reality.

This thinking should be applied in news coverage of the World Cup.

Although supposedly an African event, it remained to be seen how it would benefit Africa rather than the usual dominant European perspectives, he said.

At the same event, the 2010 Local Organising Committee chief communications officer, Rich Mkhondo listed five direct benefits for Africa which would flow out of the World Cup. These included Fifa’s commitment to roll out 53 artificial turfs and a number of community service centres across the continent.

In a separate development, it was recently announced that Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, Fifa former English footballer Gary Lineker, and soccer players from across the globe had launched an initiative called 1GOAL: Education for All, aimed at ensuring that all children will receive
an education.

The purpose of the initiative is to ensure that the 75 million children not attending school in Africa and the world’s poorest countries get access to classrooms, teachers and the future that education provides.

In his lecture, Cronje said the 2010 World Cup was the first mega event, post democracy, that allowed funds from all three spheres of government to be used for infrastructural upgrades for a single project.

In the case of Cape Town, the Green Point precinct, where the 2010 stadium is being erected, needed a facelift; the city was in desperate need of a new public transport system; and Hospital Bend and Koeberg Interchange upgrades were long overdue.

“The infrastructural upgrades were part of the national government’s business plan, and the World Cup just fast-tracked that process,” he said.

It is not only the major metropolitan areas that are set to benefit from the hosting of the tournament. On the back of the 2010 hype, Mossel Bay Tourism has launched a new project that is expected to enhance its business, tourism and social welfare opportunities emanating from South American countries.

The project is called the South-South Strategy, and would not only promote the town as tourism destination, but also encourage business partnerships, create awareness about its social welfare situation and highlight the importance of Mossel Bay as a significant archaeological heritage area.

Mossel Bay, which will host the base camp of the Paraguayan team for the tournament, has as part of its project entered into an agreement with the University of Buenos Aires, which would open a language faculty in the town.

The aim is to teach Spanish to at least 300 people in the hospitality, service and safety sectors. The first 120 are expected to graduate at the end of September.

Badat said the positives of the World Cup were also captured in the HSRC study. These included the development of public transport in major centres, and an opportunity to enhance the country’s identity and patriotism.

But the other conclusions of the study were a cause for concern. “Contributions to economic development, including tourism, job creation and poverty mitigation, has almost certainly been overstated.

“In a country like South Africa, where disparities are among the highest in the world, inequality may even be exacerbated by the event. Some consider the event a failure to prioritise expenditure in a developing economy,” said Badat