Africa News blog

Power cut dampens township’s World Cup mood

The excitement is here in the townships too. We have our flags, our caps, our second hand sport shirts. All that is missing are the games.

Our electricity was cut off just a few days ago in what looks as though it was a crackdown on irregular power connections by the power company Eskom. No light. No television.

The only way to get electricity now would be to run a cable from the nearby brick houses, but that’s not an option if you don’t have the money to be able to buy the wire as well as someone who will let you take from their supply.

A few lucky people still have the right connections. Their shacks will be full of neighbours coming to watch the games.

We still hope Eskom will recognise us one day and give us our own electricity so we don’t have to tap from elsewhere. Until then we will just have to cram into other people’s houses.

Work stops when Bafana is in town

They stood in the winter sun for up to two hours just waiting to catch a glimpse of their nation’s hope, Bafana Bafana. Some swopped their usual tie and shirts to don the South African National football jersey. Those who tried to work, it seems, eventually left their work stations and joined in the trumpet blast that gripped Johannesburg’s business hub also known as Sandton.

They blew their vuvuzelas, sang Shosholoza, blew the vuvuzelas some more and finally…..the green double decker bus carrying the national team emerged. Bafana Bafana supporters showed their love to the team ahead of their World Cup Opening match against Mexico on Friday. The players, led by captain Aaron Mokoena, could be seen perched atop the open bus taking pictures of the fans below and waving at them.

In cities around South Africa, on Wednesday, football fans heeded the call to support Bafana Bafana by blowing their vuvuzelas at  midday.   “The “Vuvuzela Moment” was an initiative which was to bring Mzansi to a standstill, make the world stand up and take notice of Mzansi’s pride, its own heritage”, read the statement from the organizers.

 Click here to watch video

World Cup Bonus for Workers

Soccer City in Johannesburg will be home to the opening and the final of the FIFA World Cup this year. On Monday, the men and women who helped build the stadium were given letters that assured them of two free tickets to the opening match.

120 000 tickets will be distributed to construction, community workers and children as part of a FIFA initiative to make sure that regular South Africans, who would normally not have the opportunity to go watch a World Cup match, can see their soccer heroes in the flesh.

Father of three, Zola Mdinmgi, said he will be taking his wife to the opening game on the 11th of June. “She knows too much about soccer. I’m too excited. It will be a big event for South Africa. It will also be nice to be here with my partner,” he said.

Thoziswa Maliwa shared the same sentiment and said she will be taking her boyfriend to the opening.” I’m so happy. Welcome to Soccer City.”

Organising Committee CEO Dr Danny Jordaan described the structure as, “not just a stadium, but a monument of this country.”

What do you think of the new upgraded Soccer City? Is it a monument to the country? Will South Africa turn heads come June 11th?

Click here to view 2010 World Cup Stadiums Slideshow

An icy black swan

By Jeremy Gardiner, director, Investec Asset Management There is a term in financial markets known as a black swan event. This term describes an event that has a significant impact on financial markets, but which could not / was not predicted by anyone. A volcano in Iceland leading to massive ‘eruption disruption’ certainly could not have been predicted by anyone. Certainly, market commentators were expecting some form of financial explosion out of Europe, but not a volcanic one!

 Fortunately it seems to be ‘blowing over’ and within a week the world should be back to normal. However, this, together with charges against Goldman Sachs and ongoing fears over Greece, could just have provided the catalyst for the much expected correction markets have been anticipating for close on six months now.

 Greece is fixed, for now. The EU and the IMF came to the rescue, which is good because it averted a default, but it is also problematic as it sends out an implicit signal to errant EU countries that there is a lifeline waiting if they need it. Germany is unimpressed, with Angela Merkel even threatening to develop a smaller, more disciplined collection of Euro countries than the current diverse bunch that comprises (or compromises) the EU. Unfortunately, Greece is not alone, and potential financial explosions from a variety of other European countries remain quite possible. Volcano-induced silence in the skies above Europe certainly hasn’t helped either.

2010 thus far has been predictably choppy, with markets generally grinding upward, far more slowly than last year, as the wounds from the financial crisis gradually heal. Equity markets, having run ahead of themselves, are more circumspect this year. Economically, while developed market economies limp towards recovery, the developing world, with Asia and in particular China, remains rampant.

 Meanwhile back in SA, Investec Asset Management hosted an investment conference last week. The conference consisted of several panel discussions featuring South Africa’s leading portfolio managers and the common theme throughout was that given how hard emerging markets and South African equities have run, money managers are bearish on future returns from current levels. While there wasn’t much discussion around potential crises or corrections, single digit equity returns for SA going forward seemed the consensus.

 So what should South African investors be doing? Future returns depend enormously on what price you buy your assets. The choice at this stage is tricky. Nothing is particularly cheap, and although equities are more attractive than cash, potential equity returns are not that appealing and do carry risk. One area which South Africans should be considering is offshore diversification. The rand has run hard and is not expected to maintain current strength for too much longer than the World Cup. While the direction of the rand is impossible to call, you could probably rely on some weakness at some stage going forward. 

 Unfortunately, however, most South African investors are jaundiced towards offshore investing, after having (along with the rest of the word) invested every cent they could, by hook or by crook, into the US markets at the end of the nineties. At that stage, the US markets and the US dollar were viewed as ‘bullet proof’, and the SA markets as ‘avoid at all costs’.

Violence and tension come at worst time for World Cup

World Cup organisers probably dreamed of a placid, trouble-free final countdown to the soccer spectacular, with all the fears about crime, bad transport and accommodation shortages pushed to the background for Africa’s biggest sports extravaganza. Sadly for them, they are getting the opposite. It would be difficult to conjure up a more unfortunate set of events less than 60 days before the tournament. Simmering racial tensions have burst into the open because of the murder of white supremacist Eugene Terre’blanche and the diatribes of Julius Malema, leader of the youth wing of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, who refuses to pipe down despite tough reprimands from President Jacob Zuma and other party officials. Even before what must be looking to hapless officials like a perfect storm, scenes had become commonplace of township residents rioting around South Africa against lack of improvements in their lives some 16 years after the end of apartheid. To add to the torture for World Cup officials while the spotlight is fixed on South Africa, municipal workers have declared an indefinite strike over wages, threatening the chaotic scenes seen last year when rubbish was strewn over the streets. South Africa’s biggest labour federation has threatened strikes during the tournament to protest against big hikes in power prices. All of this illustrates the point that countries or cities staging major world events suddenly become fixed in an often uncomfortable glare of world attention as the big day approaches. But even by these standards, South Africa looks unfortunate. World Cup officials, led by chief organiser Danny Jordaan, have spent literally years fending off suggestions that soccer fans will be in mortal danger in South Africa, which has one of the globe’s highest rates of violent crime. Jordaan and others have repeated a familiar mantra– the country has staged 150 sports and other events since the end of apartheid with little problem, millions of tourists have enjoyed South Africa’s many attractions for years without major criminal attacks and protecting a finite event is a lot less complex than overcoming the national crime wave–especially since 40,000 police have been mobilised to do only that.

Nevertheless, many foreign fans and even visiting journalists are anxious about security and alarmist media reports have undoubtedly deterred some, especially it seems in Germany–hosts of the last event. What could be worse then, as the final countdown begins, than the events of the last week or so? Terre’blanche was hacked and bludgeoned to death on April 3 in a killing whose brutality seemed almost calculated to set off new anxiety about visiting South Africa, even though police believe it was a simple criminal, rather than racial, attack. Terre’blanche’s own fringe AWB party lost no time in telling foreign journalists that overseas fans would be in danger during the World Cup and most reports on the killing mentioned the tournament’s approach. The most extreme reaction came from the U.K. tabloid the Daily Star which said English fans risked a “machete race war” –sparking howls of protest in South Africa. All of this has been made a lot worse by Malema, a firebrand demagogue who had hitherto been apparently used by some of the ANC to hit at leftwingers in the party and to mobilise the youth vote, but who now seems to have got out of control. Terre’blanche’s supporters say that Malema’s insistence on reviving an apartheid-era song “Kill the Boer” — which has now been banned by the courts –was the direct cause of the murder. Zuma said on Sunday, in an unusually strong reprimand, that Malema’s comments and actions, including calling a BBC journalist a bastard and throwing him out of a press conference, were alien to the ruling party. Malema remained defiant despite the rebuke.

Can things get any worse? Well the impact of even these events is debatable. The timing is undoubtedly deeply unfortunate, but reports that foreign fans are newly anxious about violence are matched by others saying they remain unmoved. One of the more surprising statistics in FIFA’s latest bulletin on ticket sales is that Americans–usually sensitive to reports about overseas danger spots– are the biggest foreign buyers of tickets and have grabbed nearly 120,000 of the 2.2 million seats sold, way above the 67,000 purchased in Britain. Jordaan, clearly deeply frustrated by repeated questioning about security, looked bemused last week when he was besieged by questions about Terre’blanche and Malema at a press conference. He told journalists the murder was a simple criminal act that had no relevance to the World Cup. “I don’t think you must completely misconstrue it in this manner, it is just not correct,” he said. Let’s hope he is right. There seems more chance that he is than the contrary. Negative reporting has abounded about the World Cup with European journalists, particularly in Britain, queuing up to say nothing would be ready on time and the competition would be chaotic. As Jordaan points out, they have already been wrong about many things. The stadiums have been finished well ahead of time and many of them are stunning. Whatever happens, the stakes are high. A successful World Cup will boost the image not just of this country but of Africa as a whole, bringing more investment and more tourists. Failure would have an equally damaging effect.

from Reuters Soccer Blog:

Does Angola attack really endanger the World Cup or just Africa’s image?

The bloody attack on Togo's team bus in Angola is a huge tragedy for African football and like it or not, has cast a shadow over the World Cup in South Africa in five months time -- the biggest sports event ever staged on the continent.

It is highly debatable whether the attack, which killed two members of the Togolese delegation as they arrived for the African Nations Cup and forced the squad's evacuation on Sunday, really increases the risk to teams and spectators in South Africa.

Without a doubt, however, it has struck a blow against Africa's concerted efforts to improve its image and reverse decades of gloomy stereotypes painting the entire continent as racked by conflict, disease and despair. Both the Nations Cup, held in a country which only emerged from a 27-year civil war in 2002, and the World Cup were intended to help the process of rehabilitating the continent's image. 

South African organisers reacted with undisguised irritation to immediate suggestions that the Angolan attack should raise concerns over the globe's most watched event. Over the weekend, Hull City Manager Phil Brown was quoted as saying the attack threw a question mark over the World Cup and other Premier League coaches were said to have called for their expensive African players to be called  back from Angola. In contrast, Arsenal's Arsene Wenger said the players should stay, suggesting other managers were motivated more by club self interest than a genuine security concern.

Chief World Cup organiser Danny Jordaan described suggestions that the Angolan attack had implications for the global event as "nonsensical", tartly pointing out that South Africa does not even have a border with Angola. The attack in the enclave of Cabinda took place thousands of kilometres from South Africa, and the reaction in some European countries reinforces a tendency which regularly causes anger and frustration on a continent where many countries are enjoying stability and attracting unprecedented investment. A while back some Kenyan friends of mine established a Facebook group called "Africa is not one country" in reaction to the common failure of Europeans and Americans to distinguish between vastly different African nations with traditions, geographical location and cultures as diverse or more diverse than those in Europe.

Jordaan's angry reaction to attempts to taint the World Cup with the Angolan attack clearly revealed this irritation and perhaps also anxiety that such suggestions might stick. "To say what happened in Angola impacts on the World Cup in South Africa is the same as suggesting that when a bomb goes off in Spain, it threatens London's ability to host the next Olympics," he said. 

Security analysts seem divided over whether the Angolan attack means the World Cup faces an increased risk. Most see the parallels as stretched to say the least--South Africa is a country with a multitude of social problems but at peace since the end of apartheid 15 years ago, with no rebel movements and no record of recent terrorist attacks. Africa's richest economy, it enjoys impeccable credentials in the Third World and among radical movements because of its unaligned foreign policy and criticism, for example, of the Iraq war. It also has a much more highly developed security apparatus and crime fighting resources than Angola, even if the police are regularly accused of corruption. It boasts of organising at least 150 international events, including rugby and cricket world cups, without problems.

Africa’s year

All too often the Year of This or the Year of That fails to live up to the expectations of whatever we’re supposed to be highlighting or celebrating.

There is no doubt that 2010 is going to be a big year for Africa.

The question is whether in a year’s time we’ll be looking back and saying it was big in the right ways.

Top of the bill will be the World Cup in South Africa. As with any large event there may well be some glitches, but there is every reason to believe it can be a success. (Whether an African team will go a long way in the gleaming new stadiums is another matter).

More African countries celebrate their 50 years of independence this year than in any other, starting with Cameroon on January 1. That is bound to be cause for taking stock. Of those that have already reached 50 years, Ghana has emerged as a shining example on many fronts. Guinea the opposite.

In a recent edition of The Africa Report, Patrick Smith wrote of the need for brutally honest assessments of countries after 50 years and the challenges they face, conducted in the open rather than by shadowy bureaucrats.

“For Africa’s future, it may be better to have a more public consultation and debate to counter some of the sycophancy and wishful thinking frequently heard among the continent’s political class,” he said.

from Reuters Soccer Blog:

Back on Robben Island — the men who changed the game

The year 1964 was a highly significant one in the fight against Apartheid: Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island and FIFA suspended South Africa from football because of the legalised racist policies of its Government.

If anyone had suggested then that one day FIFA's Executive Committee would meet on the outcrop off the coast of Cape Town on the eve of the draw for South Africa's World Cup, they would have been derided as a fantasist.

But that is exactly what happened on Thursday. FIFA president Sepp Blatter and the 24 most important men in world soccer, plus around 250 members of the media and other helpers, spent a day on the island where Mandela, and current South African President Jacob Zuma were incarcerated for years of their lives.

Thousands of opponents of the Apartheid regime were imprisoned on the island, but for FIFA, and for the world at large, Robben Island is not just a sombre place with a dreadful past, but it is also a symbol of hope.

It is where oppressed and imprisoned men turned to football as a way of regaining their dignity and humanity which the Apartheid regime was determined to deprive them of.

While Blatter and FIFA's decision-makers were in session, the world's press were introduced to other men who all did time on Robben Island, and who, in 1967, literally set the ball rolling which eventually gathered enough momentum to bring the World Cup to South Africa -- and FIFA to Robben Island.

from Reuters Soccer Blog:

Confederations Cup defies pessimists but is World Cup on course?

So, the Confederations Cup is over and much of the pessimistic handringing beforehand proved unfounded.Despite some real logistical problems, the general verdict seems to be that the tournament was a success with enthusiastic and colourful crowds and some classy and unpredictable football, not least the United States' shock semi-final defeat of Spain and a thrilling final where Brazil went 2-0 down to the Americans before storming back to win 3-2 and ensure the football world was not thrown off its axis.Crucially, South Africa's own team, Bafana Bafana, did a lot better than many of their own fans had expected. The side suffered a lot of bad press from their terrible pre-competition form -- they did not even qualify for next year's African Nations Cup finals -- and Brazilian coach Joel Santana had been treated with scepticism by football writers and fans alike. Even Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the organising committee for next year's World Cup, expressed concern over their form. After a slow start, however, South Africa turned in a creditable, if not outstanding performance. They reached the semi-final and held eventual champions Brazil until the 88th minute when they went down to a scorching free kick by Daniel Alves. And in the third place final they pushed European champions Spain into extra time before finally losing 3-2, again to a freekick.They badly need more strike power and it looks like Santana must make peace with English-based striker Benni McCarthy who was dropped from the team for his apparent lack of commitment. But their performance gave grounds for some optimism.Bafana Bafana's Confederations Cup performance was key to the 2010 World Cup because it will encourage local fan participation -- a constant worry for the organisers, who expressed concern before this tournament about lack of home enthusiasm.Nevertheless, there are continuing worries that even the cheapest World Cup tickets are still too expensive for working class South Africans and that they will be unwilling to pay in advance for entrance in a year's time, something which goes directly against the entrenched local custom of buying tickets on match days.World Cup matches attended predominantly by foreign fans and restrained, middle class South Africans would be a huge disappointment for the first World Cup held in Africa, where the unique local atmosphere was a major selling point.That isn't the only worry in considering what the Confederations Cup tells us about the likely success of next year's much bigger global competition.FIFA boss Sepp Blatter gave organisers 7.5 points out of 10 for the Confederations Cup but World Cup veterans said this was nothing to be complacent about, given his likely tendency to talk up the tournament. Even Blatter said South Africa had to do "a little bit more" and FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke was more direct, acknowledging problems with transport, security and accommodation capacity, which is still significantly below what will be required next year.Security is a particularly sensitive issue, given South Africa's frightening reputation for violent crime, so it was unfortunate that the Confederations Cup saw alleged thefts from both Egyptian and Brazilian teams, although some of the circumstances remain mirky.More serious were security lapses in access to stadiums and other areas. Such failures must be cleared up in the time that remains if fans are to follow their teams without constantly looking over their shoulders.So the Confederations Cup provided both encouragement and warnings. Okay so far, but much more to be done. The next 12 months may be both nerve racking and frenetic for the organisers but we are all still hoping for a reasonably trouble-free football extravaganza with the special atmosphere that only Africa can give it--including those pesky vuvuzela trumpets...PHOTO: A South African fan at the June 28 Confederations Cup final REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

Money will talk louder than any vuvuzela

The debate around the vuvuzela was always going to generate big noise but for some South African commentators it has become almost a neo-colonial conflict.

The noisy trumpet, which dominates the sound waves around the stadiums during the Confederations Cup, has got a lot of people covering their ears.

Complaints from TV viewers across Europe have been vociferous enough for the future of the plastic pest to become the major item on the agenda at the series of press conferences FIFA president Sepp Blatter has held during the tournament in South Africa.

Blatter has said it will stay — he wants to celebrate local custom and is inviting the rest of the world to do so too.