Speech by Greg Krumbock, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of tourism, in the FIFA World Cup debate, National Assembly, June 3 2010
There were those who said our country, let alone Africa, should never have been awarded the 19th FIFA World Cup. The stadiums would never be built on time, they predicted. FIFA had Australia waiting in the wings as plan B, they whispered.
Some even said we would be engulfed in a machete civil war after the murder of Eugene Terreblanche, just to sell a few more newspapers. We have proved those hollow doomsayers wrong and shown that we have left the past far behind.
49 million South Africans have proved to the world that the most a pessimist can ever achieve is the empty consolation of being right. 49 million South Africans stand before the world today and say with one voice : Ke nako! We are ready!
But more than that, we are ready to deliver a uniquely African World Cup. As Africans, we celebrate our common heritage in the Calabash nestling in its ring of fire at Soccer City, the Moses Mabhida arch in eThekwini, and the giraffe supports at Mbombela stadium.
We ask the football gods to echo the words of Isaiah and bestow upon us wings who soar like eagles and midfielders who will run and not go weary. Let us hope our strikers will be swifter than cheetahs on greased lightning, and that the Mexican, Uruguayan and French defenders will be slower than turtles swimming through peanut butter! Wouldn't that be ayoba!
We wish for referees with eyes sharper than the African fish eagle in our opponents' penalty area, and that they will be especially vigilant on 22 June in Bloemfontein where we hope Thierry Henry will keep his hands strictly to himself! Eish!
Phambili Bafana Bafana, Phambili Aaron Mokoena, phambili ! Shoot straight Katlego Mphela! Show ‘dem Stevie P! Senzeni siziqhenye Bafana Bafana !
But late on July 11th, the sound of the last vuvuzela will fade into a chilly highveld night and the World Cup will be over. Each one of us must ensure that the gift of the World Cup carries on giving for the next 30 years.
For if the truth be told, we did not successfully bid for this World Cup to turn a profit on the tournament. No host nation ever does. We are hosting this tournament because it offers the once-in-a-lifetime chance to rebrand our country as a safe, friendly and value-for-money destination. If we get that right, then the expertise of our engineers, the vision of our architects, and our tireless workers who built our iconic stadiums will live on in the legacy of 2010.
Hosting a zero-defect 2010 World Cup as perfect as a Teko Modise pin-point pass could increase our tourist numbers by as much as 10% per year. That is equivalent to another 125 000 jobs, an extra R20 billion of GDP every year and around R6 billion more in tax revenue annually. That's enough to pay off the stadiums within 3 years and the national fiscus's contribution to the tournament of R33 billion within 6 years.
That's the legacy we need to protect. So, let's make sure we give all our football fans Africa's warmest welcome and not overcharge them. Let's keep our country spotlessly clean and our tourists safe. Let's make sure that for the next 40 days the only strikers around are those surging towards our opponents goals! 34 billion people will be watching.
2010 has accelerated our growth towards one nation with one future. We must be doing something right if Blue Bulls fans from Pretoria now blow the vuvuzela with their newest fellow supporters in Soweto.
And that legacy, as the credit card commercial suggests, is priceless.
Nkosi Sikelele iAfrika.
Statement issued by the Democratic Alliance, June 3 2010
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