Just less than 100 days to go and World Cup fever is growing here in SA. In the papers, on the TV, everything has a World Cup slant. Even King Goodwill Zwelithini (King of the Zulus) is getting in on the act and is pressing for his palaces to be revamped and for his portraits to be mounted at airports, football stadia and other public places in KwaZulu-Natal.
The South African Police have said that brothels posing as massage parlours have been told to "clean up their act" before the World Cup. "Tough undercover teams" will be "swooping" on homes and parlours to catch prostitutes and their clients. And "intense" patrols and raids will continue during the tournament. "Foreigners should be fully aware that soliciting is a crime and if caught they will be charged!" But hey, welcome to SA, come and have a good time!
Apparently Victoria Beckham isn't going to stay with all the WAGs. She's rented a luxury apartment at upmarket Camps Bay on Cape Town's Atlantic coast for her and the kids (Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz) and is going to spend her time visiting underprivileged children. Fabio Capello, meanwhile, is trying to stop the WAGs coming near the England training camp at Rustenburg, some 1500 kilometres northeast of Cape Town, but some of them are booking in at Sun City's Palace Hotel, just down the road. Fabio doesn't want a repeat of their drunken antics in Baden-Baden during the last World Cup.
It's hard to know who to believe when it comes to World Cup readiness in SA. Fifa and the SA Government have been playing up the preparations, but a press visit to Nelspruit's Mbombela Stadium revealed a dust bowl instead of a lush green pitch. The pitch has been pulled up for failing to meet intenational standards for the second time. It's also reported that the precinct around the R3.3 billion Soccer City in Johannesburg still looks like a building site. At Rustenburg, tender battles have stalled the construction of a 30km stretch of road, the only access from Sun City to the Royal Bafokeng Stadium. However, Polokwane's stadium is complete and Durban's Moses Mabhida Stadium is 90% complete.
But 85% of South Africans believe the country will be ready to host the World Cup, according to the latest survey, although only 55% believe the country's soccer team, Bafana Bafana, will be ready.
After all the furore of over-priced air fares and accommodation, budget airline Mango has released 40 000 low-cost fares and other airlines are adjusting their prices downwards. However, this seems to be more in response to poor demand than an attempt to retract on their early greed. Latest estimates of international visitors for the World Cup have fallen to 300 000, down from some really inflated figures of 2 million a couple of years ago, although Fifa's original estimate was a more credible 450 000.
That's it for today - more news soon.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
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