That’s why it’s pretty cool to see the new Bafana Bafana jersey for the 2010 FIFA World Cup:

The jersey is yellow with green trim, as you can see, and includes 11 threads to symbolize diversity in unity (there are 11 national languages in South Africa too, by no coincidence). The South African flag appears on the front and there are modern interpretations of traditional South African art on the collar.

There are two versions of the Bafana Bafana jersey, known as “Formotion” and “Techfit skin-tight”, both including climacool technology which helps control sweating and keep the player cool.

Want a replica to wear so you can start feeling that Bafana Bafana magic?  Adidas (the jersey sponsor) says that an official replica is already on sale throughout South Africa and it’s retailing for R599 ($80.22), while a T-Shirt that’s quite similar in appearance is R345 ($46.20).

That’s five stadiums: Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium (Port Elizabeth), Moses Mabhida Stadium (Durban), Mbombela Stadium (Nelspruit), Peter Mokaba Stadium (Polokwane), and Soccer City Stadium (Johannesburg).

In addition, the FIFA team inspected team hotels and training sites and, as Ron DelMont, head of FIFA’s South Africa Office, said: “overall, we are very impressed with the achievements made. In addition to the stadiums coming together, we were equally pleased that the teams of the organizing committee, host cities and FIFA are working on a common vision.”

Wondering if the tour was just about buildings, gates and seats?  The team included experts on broadcasting, media operations, logistics, safety, security, medical and hospitality.

All we can say is Go, South Africa, Go!

The countdown for the World Cup has long begun and many South Africans are looking forward to the day finally arriving. The recent Confederations Cup was a taste of the 2010 World Cup and things to come.

The media hype has increased over the last couple of months and all programmes and stations continue announcing how many days are left until the World Cup. Different television, radio and newspapers compete for coverage of the World Cup to gain a larger audience.

Ordinary South Africans are also looking forward to the World Cup but for many reasons such as the enjoyment and the fact that the world’s eyes will be upon us, as well as for monetary benefits.

I love soccer and I am very happy that South Africa was chosen to host the 2010 World Cup. It is great that South Africa is getting international exposure that has not been given yet. During apartheid sanctions were placed on South Africa including the sporting sections, so having the World Cup in South Africa shows how far South Africa has come and that we are moving forward.

Street vendors have started selling soccer souvenirs and other soccer merchandise in hope to make more money. Hotel and Bed and Breakfast (B&B) owners have refurbished their accommodation as they prepare for the influx of visitors.

Construction workers have been employed as many workers were need to construct new stadiums, refurbish older ones and construct roads around the stadiums to make it more accessible to more people.

Certain jobs have been offered during the World Cup and hotels definitely will benefit, but after the World Cup and the influx of tourists what will be left with? The World Cup is only a short term solution but we need a long term solution.

The World Cup preparations also means lots of changes for South Africans, from road changes to dates and other events being moved.

The construction of stadiums and new roads began a long time ago and projects are near completion. The stadiums have become focal points to cities as each new level became a momentous occasion and was highly publicised. This is not a problem but in some cases constructions have caused congestion as roads are closed and traffic has to be redirected.

The stadium buildings and disruptions have just made the World Cup more of a reality in our lives. Even though we might not be directly affected by the World Cup just yet, seeing the stadiums rising up in cities makes us realise that it is real and will be coming to South Africa soon!

In terms of schools and university schedules, dates have had to be changed to accommodate people travelling and visiting soccer matches. Terms will start earlier next year to enable longer winter vacations and exams dates will change as well.

Other events are also striving to get more coverage and overseas visitors during the World Cup. One such event is the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. It is usually a ten day event, but next year it will be between 15 to 17 days in order to get more people to visit.

This year also saw the festival organisers experimenting with new venues or splitting older ones in order to accommodate more people next year. Unfortunately this was not welcomed by vendors and others as this was not discussed with them.

However I am a bit uncertain of the monetary benefit that South Africa will gain from the World Cup. In some ways it feels as though South Africa is spending money that we could use in housing and education and using the money to create potential white elephants. Our government is using our tax money to build stadiums in particular, when ordinary South Africans might not benefit in material ways.

It seems that South Africa is taking a large risk at their own expense and at the expense of its citizens.

The government may also be pleased to host other nations but it must still consider its citizens and its own future.

I am presently living in a smaller city and on visiting a major city I have realised how much major cities are prioritised over smaller cities and rural areas in terms of infrastructure and preparations for the World Cup. Not everyone in South Africa will be affected by the World Cup or will experience a part of the excitement.

Some people will not be able to afford to travel to the city to watch a match or pay for the ticket into the stadium. And even though large screen televisions have been placed in public areas for people to see different matches, it hardly makes a difference to a person who has no food or is living out on the streets.

Poverty is a large problem in South Africa living and it has deep set inequalities which need to be eradicated.

Not all changes or decisions have been well received either. The government wants to make prostitution legal during the World Cup. South Africa has a high rate of HIV/ Aids and legalising prostitution will just aggravate the situation. Here again South Africa is looking for the short term benefits but not looking at it from a long term perspective.

The recent Confederations Cup has added to the excitement and has been a test to see whether or not South Africa is ready for the World Cup. The Confederations Cup proved to the sceptics that South Africa was indeed ready and the soccer matches went off relatively smoothly. South Africans have become very patriotic and everyone is proud to be a South African.

Some areas stood still when soccer matches were on television as everyone stayed at home to watch them.

The planning committee and all South Africans have gone the extra mile to ensure that tourists have a great experience when visiting South Africa.

South Africa has a lot to offer the tourists, and the World Cup is a good event for South Africa to host, but on some levels this event just has to be better planned and thought about, not only in terms of next year but in years to come.

Thanks to Joy Niemack for this contributed article. Joy is a designer and Fourth year media studies student at Rhodes University in South Africa.

When we wanted to come up with a way to convey our set of values with both the South Africa Project and Ubuntu Now, a tag cloud seemed a natural, and they’ve come out really well. Here’s the one for the South Africa Project:

South Africa Project Tag Cloud

Immediately and without any complications it shows that while we’re still engaged and interested in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, rape prevention is a much more core goal of our project, and that empowerment and gender equality are critical parts of what we are trying to accomplish.  Nice, isn’t it?

What’s better is that we’ve made it easy for you to support our project by buying some gear with this tag cloud featured by going to our South Africa Project Store. Just click and check it out, I know you’ll like it.

And our overarching organization, Ubuntu Now?  We created a different tag cloud for that:

Ubuntu Now Tag Cloud

Since we’re big fans of this one too, which offers up the values that helped guide the creation of Ubuntu Now and South Africa Project, we’ve also made these available with its own online store: Ubuntu Now Online Store.

I invite you to browse both stores and I’ll remind you that it’s one of the easiest ways to help us raise money to support these worthy goals for South Africa and our troubled world.

A recent study on rape by the South Africa Medical Research Council came as a strong reminder on the severity of the rape situation in South Africa.

According to the study 1 in 4 men have already forced a women to have sex with him. Rape is generally accepted in wide parts of the society.

The police statistics show 86 women and 64 minor girls being raped each day.

30% of adolescents stated that their first sexual encounter was based on rape.

The reported number of rapes per year is 55,000. The University of South Africa estimates that the real number is around 1 million. If this number is correct one woman in South Africa is forced to have sex every 30 seconds.

16% of South African men that know a rape victim believe that she wanted to have sex and actually enjoyed it.

ActionAid states that out of 25 men that are accused 24 are being acquitted.

Most adolescents in South Africa don’t even know the definition of rape.

Leading expert Rachel Jewkes of MRC conducted a survey with 1738 men in the Eastern Cape and Kwazulu-Natal provinces:

• 25% of the men admitted to having raped a women at least once.
• 75% of the men were younger than 20 at their first rape.
• 50% of the rapists have done it more than once.
• 20% of the rapists were HIV positive.
• 10% of the rapists stated that they were 10 or younger at their first rape.

A study of the NGO CIET Trust showed that 40% of the students below 18 years of age have been raped at least once. 20% of these rapes were done by their teachers.

In many cases it is not the least educated men committing the rapes. The more educated men feel more empowered. Mr. Rachel Jewkes stated that only the ones with power can actually abuse it.

Most sex education in South Africa seems to take place among peers. Boys teach other boys that raping a girl will turn the into a “real man”.

Another fundamental problem is the lack of male role models. There are simply not enough dads that could show the other way to their children.

Just in case you wondered why we started our little South Africa Project…

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They look like this:

The Vuvuzela is a noise maker found at South African soccer matches

A half-dozen fans having one of these, or even a lot of fans who blow on them to celebrate a goal or terrific defensively play is one thing, but as those of us that watched the FIFA Confederations Cup learned, the practice in South Africa seems to be to keep a continuous drone of vuvuzela going throughout the match.

And we’re not talking about twenty or thirty people in the stadium, we’re talking about hundreds, if not thousands, of locals keeping a deafening racket during the entire match.

Players have complained, coaches have complained, broadcast personnel have complained, but FIFA, so far, has said that it would allow vuvuzela’s in the World Cup 2010 stadiums and would allow South Africans to use them to mark their enjoyment and appreciation of the game.

I wish they wouldn’t. I found the constant clamor to be most distracting and annoying, and it even got in the way of being able to hear the crowd reaction to terrific plays or bad calls by referees both.

Maybe it’s time for the South African fans to learn some chants?

The rulers in Iran made one big mistake during the Islamic Revolution. They cut down women’s rights. But they figured that if women cover themselves up they could be allowed into Universities. And so they went. And they got very educated. The rate of educated women climbed from 30% to 70% over the last 30 years.

Yes they still walk around all covered up but there was something brewing underneath all these chadors and head scarfs. And the rulers missed out on that.

The women of Teheran have shown tremendous courage over the last weeks. They were not afraid to take a beating.

Neda Iran was of course the woman whose tragic fate propelled the women standing up into the world headlines. They know that what is happening in this country is not right.

This should serve as a lesson to other countries that still discriminate against women. No matter what your reasoning polical, religious or cultural.

Yes the demonstrations in Iran are about the past elections. But they have turned into something much bigger by now. These women stand up for their rights.

Bottom line: Many of these women are fearless heros. Some of them are dead now or imprisoned. They are still all winners in my book. I hope many other women from around the world will follow suit. This doesn’t always have to be on the level of trying to overturn a government. But gathering and speaking up does make a difference: To the outside world but even more so to yourself. It is very empowering and can chnge someone’s life forever.

How about that famous quote of Victor Frankl: ” Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. ”

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It’s not quite the 2010 World Cup, but it’s a great chance for South Africa and FIFA to give us a taste of what it’s going to be like next year when the World Cup kicks off, and so far the stadiums look great, the players are looking smart on field, and the high-def TV camera systems are doing very well.

You haven’t heard of the Confederations Cup?  I hadn’t either until I saw the games being discussed on some South African blogs. This is the eighth Confederations Cup and FIFA considers it the “Festival of Champions”. Here’s how FIFA explains:

“With six Champions from six continents, 2006 FIFA World Cup™ winner Italy, and the host, South Africa, all competing, this football celebration will be the warm-up for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. The list of participating nations also includes recent European Champions Spain, USA, Iraq, Brazil, Egypt and the winner of the OFC Nations Cup, New Zealand.”

Sounds good, and so far, it looks great!

South Africa is currently preparing for the World Cup 2010, not only one of the biggest events of the world, but an opportunity for improving lives of the citizens. The South Africa government is committed to improving infrastructure and security to ensure Africa’s first Fifa world cup event.

As South Africa is preparing for this big event, awareness needs to be brought to this potential violence lurking in the shadows. According to an article posted on 3/27/09 on Dispatch Online, World Cup 2010 may be promising more than economic and national growth for South Africa. There is a growing fear of human trafficking emerging ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, much like the organized sex trade that Germany had when they hosted the event in 2006.

The area most likely to be targeted for prostitution is the Eastern Cape, which has recently been named as the worst slave trade province in the country. This is due to the high poverty rate and lack of resources. Tourism and prostitution tend to go together, mainly in poverty stricken areas, where the lure of money is attractive to young girls. But in a country with already astronomical rates of HIV, AIDS and sexual violence, this projection can’t be ignored.

As South Africa develops better sports facilities and transportation system, and improves its roads and telecommunications infrastructure, we hope that the government is not ignoring the needs of the poverty- stricken areas not in the media spotlight.

As a result Desmond Tutu and F.W. de Klerk have already pulled out. The move is seen as a way to avoid conflict with the Chinese government even though South Africa denies it. Why else would you not let the Dalai Lama in.

Other countries have been way more diplomatic in their way to deal with the Tibet problem.

The South African government seem to be fairly dependent from trade with China. The peace conference is doomed to fail as a result. Maybe it is better hosted somewhere else.

The signal sent is that non-violence and peace might not seem to be top priorities. The government will give in to threats by powerful forces. That could have implications in South Africa’s efforts to present itself as a safe place for visitors to attend the World Cup.

Keep in mind that China is not the biggest force in World Soccer. No matter how big their efforts. China has maybe won this battle. On the pitch in 2010 they’ll be a non-factor.

Banning the Dalai Lama from a peace conference feels a little like banner a soccer ball from the game.