What Future Beyond the Cup?

As the World Cup fades away in South Africa, locals are left wondering whether the investment was worthwhile, and how the government will shift its focus to the country's pressing social and economic problems.

[I]t remains to be seen if the enthusiasm and unity fostered by the World Cup can be sustained, or if a national torpor will overtake a fractious country in which much of the population lacks basic services. If the resolve that led to a successful tournament can be marshaled to provide needed services, it could be testament to the power of sport to improve lives. But South Africans are wary that once the enthusiasm of the tournament dissipates, this country of 48 million people will return to normal, which is to say 25 percent unemployment and wide disparities between the rich and the poor.

South Africa Wonders What Lies Beyond the Cup
The New York Times
July 12, 2010

20 Years After Apartheid, Troubles Remain for South Africa

20 years after the country cast aside apartheid, South Africa remains a troubled country, according to this piece, which looks at the nation's history and the challenges it faces as it prepares to host the World Cup.

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