2010 World Cup's African legacy

The festival is over. The vuvuzelas have been packed up. Stadiums from Bloemfontein to Pretoria, Cape Town to Johannesburg have closed their doors to the world's fans and stars and the local newspapers have started to return to their roles as doom and gloom merchants. But as the dust settles on Africa's first hosting of the World Cup, what does the future hold for South Africa, and what will be the legacy of the 2010 World Cup?
There was always going to be this debate following such an historic (and expensive) event, and now important questions must be asked about the future of South Africa. It has been clear over the last month what this tournament has meant to a largely impoverished country - national (and continent-wide) pride have swelled. This is an abstract concept to measure, but it is undoubtedly true that the South African people finally had something to cheer about. Although South Africa were the first ever host nation to fail to qualify from the group stage. But they lit up the tournament, none more so than Siphiwe Tshabalala, who scored a stunning opening goal of the tournament to make himself the first star of the World Cup. There was also a win against 2006 finalists France, and although this was not enough for them to qualify for the second round, they could still be immensely proud of their achievements. If anyone thought the hosts' exit would signal the end of the great atmosphere, they were mistaken. The fans still turned up in their droves, mingling with supporters of those countries still involved, and it was a joyous sight to behold. One fan commented: 'it's much easier to say I'm South African than it has been in the past.' This is a sense of national pride which the government would do well to foster.
What is probably an even greater achievement, however, is the South African, and pan-African, unity, which has swept across the country in the past month. In the lead up to the World Cup, there were numerous programmes and warnings devoted to guarding against crime in a supposedly 'crime-ridden' country. But fans from all over the world have experienced nothing of the sort, and have been (wrongly) shocked by the kindness of the locals. When the hosts exited the tournament, the whole of Africa threw the weight of their support behind Ghana, the only African nation to progress beyond the group stage. In their quarter-final against Uruguay, when they were a single penalty kick away from making football history and becoming the first African nation to make the World Cup semi-finals, the whole continent was willing the ball into the goal.
All of this shows the emotional maturity of South Africa. But an important question has still been asked by non-sports broadcasters - could the government not have spent the money on something which would have addressed the problems faced by the country in the immediate short-term? That sense of a 'feel-good' factor has to be turned into something more tangible, which is what the affable and charismatic South African President Jacob Zuma wants to achieve. What is the use of just sitting back on the memories of 2010 World Cup, with a bunch of new, expensive stadiums from which the money could have gone into housing, education, or addressing the abject poverty in much of the country? Zuma is aware of this quandary. He is positive the South African authorities will use the experiences gained from the World Cup to turn around the state the country - given real, definite deadlines, they have come up trumps against all the odds, when there was talk of South Africa not being ready in time. This applies to infrastructure, building stadiums, police organisation, and most importantly, social cohesion. Black townships have mixed with their white townships more than anytime in recent years, and the 'feel-good' factor created during the Nelson Mandela era, with the rugby union team winning the 1995 World Cup and the football team winning the 1996 African Nations Cup (both at home) seems to be returning.
But reality may set in sooner rather than later. South Africa is a relatively developed democracy by African standards. But that is nothing to boast about. There is high unemployment (although Britain doesn't have much to brag about in this area), a crippling housing shortage, a school system in crisis and one of the world's biggest wealth gaps. So, in essence, you are as likely to see someone hideously rich as someone in abject poverty, and it is the latter which the South African government has to concentrate on improving the lives of. The key word here is momentum. The momentum generated by the World Cup has to be continued in the right direction, because the South African authorities will never have a better opportunity to make real improvements. There may not be belief and expectation that lives are going to change for the better. But there is hope, and that is what Zuma and his colleagues have to steer their ship towards in the coming months and years.