World Cup Spin-offs Are Already Apparent

When Fifa President, Sepp Blatter announced that South Africa had been selected to host the 2010 World Cup, the news was received indifferent fashions by different people. There are those skeptics who thought South Africa would not be able to host such an august event. They cited many reasons for this, reasons which were of concern to the government too. There were some who saw the announcement as the start of a road to riches. It is true that our government would like to see many South Africans benefiting from this event.

It is true there are those who are going to make a fortune out of this event and there are also those who will not benefit at all. Yes, the country will benefit and those who do not benefit directly will still gain because the country will be able to provide other services, which it otherwise would not have been able to provide.

Fifa officials recently visited Durban to inspect the progress made in building the stadiums, and we were excited by the report we received. Fifa was excite  to learn that we were progressing well and that the Moses Mabhida stadium was expected to be completed at least two months ahead of schedule. But preparing for the World Cup is not about stadiums alone.

Our information technology and transport system have to be up to world standard. Law enforcement is another important aspect for a successful World Cup. And I am pleased to see that there has been a significant drop in crime in our city. This is according to a recent Criminal Analysis conducted by the Metro Police and South African Police Services. We are not yet where we want to be but we are getting there. The involvement of our people in fighting crime has contributed immensely to this drop in crime. I challenge our communities to keep on reporting criminals.

In the end, our city and country will be the winner. We are already enjoying some of the spin-offs of the 2010 World Cup.

Obed Mlaba
EThekwini Mayor