Home >> Blogs

Communities did not do enough to prepare for the Fifa World Cup

Kennedy Mudzuli

It’s been a long time coming, and now there are just under 100 days to go before the start of the greatest sporting event on Earth.

Not only are our Bafana to be based in Sandton during the World Cup, but several top football nations will be sharing our roads, shopping malls and other facilities come June. Over the past year or so the talk has been to clean up your surroundings, fix roads and prepare yourselves because 2010 is coming. Well 2010 is here and national teams such as Netherlands, Slovenia and Brazil – yes, the mighty Seleção – have chosen the northern suburbs as their base camps.
Now the question is, are we ready? Perhaps not really. There is still litter everywhere and pavements in certain areas are overgrown with weeds. Motorists don’t think twice about tossing cigarettes out of car windows and pedestrians dump illegally with ease. The general attitude towards the environment is appalling. The area around Soccer City Stadium, the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies, is not the best looking in town. Pikitup organised a clean-up campaign last year but that didn’t help much.
This newspaper actually warned the municipal waste management utility at the time that a once-off clean-up day was never going to make Johannesburg spotless by the time the World Cup kicked off. Appeals have also been made for residents to clean up areas outside their properties, and the municipality to beautify roads, but very little has happened in the build-up to the World Cup. Disputes still surround the Rea Vaya bus system.
Yes, South African is ready to and will host the World Cup, and a very successful one at that, but more could have been done to ensure the country puts its best foot forward.
kennedym@caxton.co.za

Stories related to:
World Cup