The Impact of the World Cup on South Africa

ESCOLA SUPERIOR DE PROPAGANDA E MARKETING

INTERNACIONAL RELATIONS  

FLÁVIA GAZARRA

Country Studies

The Impact of the World Cup on South Africa

SÃO PAULO

2018

In 2010, sixteen years after the fall of the apartheid, happened the World Cup in South Africa, they were the first African country to host that. With the event, the country hoped that hosting the biggest spectacle in the world would be an opportunity to continue the societal and economic transformation. The countries usually want to host a mega-sporting events waiting that it will create a new trading partners, bring tourists to the country and they money and create opportunity of jobs and business.

More than just an opportunity to South Africa, the World Cup was an African achievement, the president of the country in the time, Thabo Mbeki says that the Cup “send ripples of confidence from Cape to Cairo”, some historians says that was possible to look back on a “moment when Africa stood and resolutely turned the tide on centuries of poverty and conflict” (Cowell, 2009).

The economic impact of hosting a big event like that, is always a controversial issue because the money could be used in another way, like in the public health, education and other things that needs more attention than a Cup, even that the returns that this event brings to the country. South Africa spent over than four billion dollars to make the event happen.

Some critics argue that the infrastructure spending was too narrowly focused on the needs of the World Cup, and would have been better directed elsewhere. However, many of the improvements the government spent money, like upgrading roads and airports, were really necessaire and helped in the infrastructure from de country.

Concerned about the global view and what the other countries would think about South Africa, the government get engaged in closing the shantytowns, that was a good thing, but that was made without care to the families and where they will live after the closes. Around all the country this scenario was replicated for slum communities that was located around the stadiums or other infrastructure that was slated for construction, or a place that would draw the eyes of tourists and bring a bad impression of the country.  

Not all researchers share a bad vision of the economic impact of the World Cup, some argue that most of the evictions that took place in South Africa were relatively unconnected, others say that economic growth in host nations is highest during the two years after hosted the World Cup. Looking for an economic view, a Cup can really impact on a society, even if the economic gains of hosting the cup haven been dubious, the social cohesion it inspired was well worth the cost.

South Africa put a lot of hope that de Cup would bring transformations in the society because they love football and there’s a big care and love about sports in the country. In the begging of the century 20, sports were taught by missionaries to local population as part of the “civilizing mission” to Blacks, once apartheid begin, the missionaries had to encourage the black people to participate in Western sports.

The sports were very important in the end of the apartheid because it was a question that interested both sides of Africa. Even before the constitution been completed, soccer crossed the color line and formed the South Africa Football association. The ex-president Nelson Mandela, that became known as a rebel and a lieder, turned to sport to build a sense of patriotism and a new thought of “South African-ness” in a country that is obsessed with soccer, because of that, the official ceremony of Nelson Mandela was a soccer match.

 When the South Africa team won the African Nations Cup defeating Tunisia, the country had a spoiler that how it will work in the World Cup because both Black and White fans came to the streets together to celebrate in peace, the Cup could been seen as a bridge of this two sides, the government use the event to try to bring again a nationalism feeling.

Use sports to try to create a unity was no new and not used only in South Africa, sports create a sense of identity and can act to facilitate healing, cheer for the same time, celebrate the same victories, cries for same loses, make people get closer. This is basically the Bread and Circuses political used in ancient Rome that consist in making events that brings happiness to people to make than forget about what is really happening in the country, for example, forget all the bad things that this event brings to Africa and use only the good stuffs to explain, like the visibility from tourists, money and other things.

In many ways, the World Cup was highly successful in achieve the nationalism feeling, the country creates a “football Fridays” that allow and encourage workers to use football time t-shirts and a flag to sports was raised. There’s no doubt that the event brings again a patriotism spasms, even after the team don’t win the competition, the feeling to participate and host a big thing like that, don’t disappeared and stays in population until now.

Unfortunately, the event was not accessible to all Africans, the cheapest tickets cost almost 570 Rand, one quarter of the population lives below the poverty line so, it was impossible to them buy a ticket, because of that, a lot of tickets reserved to local weren’t sold and many stadiums went unfiled during the games. Some critics don’t only regret the inaccessible price, but also the different ways to sing the Nacional Anthem. They also say that in the end of the month, everyone comes back to their separate lives, the Withe South Africans will identify then as European.