But the nation is still saddled with a lot of baggage from its apartheid past: oppression, poverty, exploitation of the majority of the people, unevenly distributed educational opportunities, dilapidated townships, a 23 percent unemployment rate, rampant crime, a huge gap between rich and poor, and high AIDS mortality rates.
South Africa is set to host the World Cup in soccer this summer, a decision that is still hotly debated outside of South Africa. According to the German newspaper Munich Merkur, Bavaria's club manager Uli Hoeness said to Munich's City Hall officials that he would not travel to South Africa because of security issues unless safety could be 100 percent guaranteed. His comments created a flurry of diplomatic exchanges. It prompted player Beckenbauer to say publicly, “But you would also not hang around the South Bronx in New York at night.”
South Africa 20 Years Later: From Apartheid to World Cup
The Epoch Times
February 6, 2010
