A year on from the 2010 World Cup

Last year this time, South Africa was in the midst of World cup fever which lasted until the 12 of July.

Ask any South African where they were on the opening day of the world cup and they will be able to tell you. Not because of the fact that the event was being held in SA but because of this.....

World Cup South Africa 2010 Opening Goal - More amazing video clips are a click away

The first goal of the World Cup 2010 was not scored by a Mexican or a Uruguayan or even a Frenchman. It was scored by our very own Siphiwe Tshabalala.

Just a note: For the unfortunate few who have not had the pleasure of watching SA soccer...the noise in the background is not a swarm of killer bees comming to sting the shit out of the players on the field. It is the sound of 90 000 Vuvuzelas being blown at once.

But lets be hounest. It might be irritating, but you are not proudly South African if you dont own a Vuvuzela or know how to blow one. Even Diego Maradona likes them.

Even if you were the most pessimistic bastard in the world (which I can admittedly be at times when it comes to my country) you couldn't help but be proudly South African and proud of your country after watching that goal. I cried like a baby when he scored that goal,the only time you will ever see me cry is during emotional moments of sporting events. I don't cry at weddings or funerals. I cry during sports events. I cried like a baby when we won the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France and I cried like a baby when 'Tshaba' scored that goal.

Another very emotional moment for me on that day was seeing one of my favorite performers of all time R Kelly performing the unofficial World Cup anthem Sign of a Victory.

	R. Kelly - Sign Of Victory .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Alot of people ask me why am I fan of R Kelly and they give me every excuse in the book about him abusing drugs and sexually assaulting an underage girl, and I tell them that I am a fan of R Kelly for the same reason that 80% of the world was (and still are) a fan of Queen (and we all know what a dodgy Cabron Freddy Mercury was). I am a fan of R Kelly because his music has meaning. His lyrics have meaning. He doesn't just sing about bro's, ho's, smoking weed and getting paid. Listen to the song. Close your eyes and concentrate on the lyrics.

But this is all besides the point. A year on from the World Cup, has South Africa benefited from the World Cup?

The Positives
South Africa benefited mainly in the form of tourism. Because of the tourists during the World Cup period for every one rand spent on improving South Africa for the event the country saw a ROI of four rand. This means that South Africa made R4-billion out of the event. A profit of R3-billion.

And this lasted long after the event. I went to the Kruger park three months after the World Cup final and there were Australians, Canadians, Americans, Israelis, Arabs, and Japanese tourist groups all in the Kruger because they saw the World Cup on TV and wanted to visit the country.

The standard of South Africa's soccer has also improved. For many years, and even during the World Cup, the South African soccer team (known affectionately as Bafana Bafana or The Boys) had foreign coaches with local coaches having to be content with playing role of the supplicant assistant. However, after South Africa's first round exit from the event the calls for a local coach were to loud to ignore and Pitso Mosimane was named as the new coach.

Under Mosimane, Bafana has improved immeasurably crushing African Champions Egypt in Johannesburg and then getting a draw in a rather dirty affair in Cairo. Who would have thought that Bafana, a team that couldn't beat the like of Cape Verde Islands two years ago, would prevent the AFRICAN CHAMPIONS, a team that has won the last three African Cup of Nations tournaments, from participating in the 2012 event? Bafana has also jumped 20 ranking points under Mosimane. 20!

The Negatives
There were infrastructure improvements left, right, and center in South Africa leading up the World Cup but the ordinary South African could not see the benefits of this.

The Gautrain was built, but at R100 a return ticket from Sandton to OR Thambo International Airport a person who makes minimum wage and is flying to Durban once a year cant afford that.

Eskom upgraded the efficiency on its power grid, but we still have rolling blackouts in areas where some of them have not had power for weeks on end. Seems like the Prince of Darkness is the nickname for the CEO of Eskom once again.

We have fantastic new stadiums all around the country, but are they becoming White Elephants? We need to have more big events at these stadiums, and not only soccer now. It needs to be a mix of Soccer, bands, conferences and exhibitions.

Overall the feeling is that South Africa did benefit from the World Cup. But instead of the country revelling in these benefits it is saying: Yes SA has benefited...but at what cost? And this dear readers is a shame.