World Cup - Do Not Lose Perspective

Andrew Layman:  PCB CEO

If I were to say that I am as excited about the World Cup as the next person, I would be untruthful.  I am not an excitable person by nature and I try to keep perspective.   As far as this international sports tournament is concerned – that’s essentially what it is – some perspective has been lost.   I hope I am not misunderstood.    The euphoria does touch me and I was very moved by the opening ceremony and the first match; I found Peter Davies’ Open Letter to our Foreign Media Friends spot on (www.supersport.co.za) and I think as a nation we have a great deal to be very proud of.   I was not one of those who doubted that this would be the case.   There have been instances before when South African ingenuity, expertise and ability to get things done well and on time have been proven.   That these qualities have been so severely compromised by public service delivery, for example, has dulled the recognition of the talent the nation possesses.   Inefficiency is not really our default status, although one can be forgiven for thinking that it is when one is trying to register one’s motor vehicle, for example, or collect one’s pension or replace a lost ID book.   Since corruption is a default position both here and globally, unsavoury things will emerge in time, I have no doubt, especially if the appeal the LOC will surely make against the recent injunction for them to make tender details publicly available, is upheld.    I am inclined to believe the research of Andrew Jennings and his exposures of the machinations of FIFA and its people.   He might well be on the list of soccer hooligans who should be barred, for he is anathema to Mr Blatter. 

The President has urged us to behave well during the World Cup, as if it doesn’t matter so much at other times.  Perhaps this is an acknowledgement that good behaviour is not our default position either.    COSATU has urged employers to be considerate to workers who, apparently, are the pre-eminent fans.   The same workers have hardly been considerate to employers in recent times with their double-digit wage demands and strikes and this will continue no doubt once the entertainment and distraction have ended.     But loss of production in the interests of the soccer spectacle is considered justifiable.    Port Terminals must be commended; they have decided not to close the terminals after all, since there is such a backlog in the wake of the crippling Transnet strike.   They wish to honour their promise to their customers, the acting CEO announced.   This promise was not so important when the decision to close the terminals was originally made.   In the same way that many schools sacrifice teaching and learning for a variety of other activities, we have put productivity, economic development and job creation on hold while we enjoy the nations at war on our magnificent soccer fields.  Perhaps this is an unnecessary concern in view of what the World Cup is expected to yield in economic terms, but this remains to be seen.   Precedents are not encouraging.   

The hype has been promoted by FIFA’s self-importance and government’s great joy that a plan has come together.   And the vuvuzela, of course – our unique way of trumpeting.   I think it points in some way to an inferiority complex, which as we know, is often obscured by the converse.   We have been too ready to join the developed world – some of it anyway – in its Afro-pessimism.  We should be taking our achievements rather more in our stride.  We are up to it – and always have been.   Considering the effort and the price, however, to be carried away is entirely justified.   And the most significant thing about the euphoria is the greater unification of the nation.    Of all the legacies – great infrastructure, tourists by the thousand, the opening of the world’s eyes to what our country is really like – this is the most important.   But it is also the most precarious and we shall have to work to ensure that it is sustained.   This will be easier, I believe, if we enjoy the World Cup to the full, take every advantage from it that we can, appreciate that it is South Africa’s time on the world stage, but do not lose perspective.     Viva, South Africa, Viva.  

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