Will South Africa be Ready for the World Cup in 2010?

If you are running a business in South Africa, be it a taxi company, a restaurant, a hotel, a grocery store or a tattoo parlor, I feel comfortable assuming that you have spent the past two years thinking about how you can prepare for the World Cup and how you can use the massive influx of tourists to expand your business. I am also very confident that all other private businesses in South Africa will be overly ready to cater their new wave of customer that hopefully will come storming in by the beginning of June 2010. They will have hired extra staff, stocked up on whatever they supply and be eager to make some money.

The more interesting question is how well the organization and government run part of this event will be prepared? (Oh, by the way, if my talk of the private sector vs the government makes you believe that I am a conservative pro-market anti-government economist, I am happy to inform you that I gave a false impression).

Will South-Africa be ready for the World Cup when it starts in June 2010? How far have they come? Do we even have any reason to worry?

Will the stadia be ready by 2010?

South Africa took their role as host for the World Cup very seriously, and committed to build five new stadiums plus greatly upgrading five existing ones. The cost of this has been enormous (I will not debate the politics of this right now), but the major concern for a lot of people has been if the stadiums will be ready by the time the world cup starts in June next year. At the moment, luckily, it looks like they don’t need to worry anymore.

Of the new stadiums, one has already opened. Three more are scheduled to open in October and the last one, Green Point Stadium in Cape Town will be finished in February 2010.

Volunteers, staff and jobs in the World Cup 2010

One thing is clear when it comes to South-Africa’s World Cup arrangement; they will have enough people working for them. South-Africa has huge unemployment rates, and there are certainly a lot of manpower available. This is a great advantage in arranging an event like this, and the latest numbers show that more than 50 000 (!) people applied for the World Cup volunteering program. This is a lot of people, and way more than they actually needed, as only 15 000 positions were available.

Accomodation

There are a lot of small things that needs to come together for the World Cup to run smoothly. South Africa has been a tourism nation for many years and is luckily used to catering a lot of people. But this will be out of the ordinary. Hotels will be fully booked and house owners will rent out spare rooms, apartments, etc. Finding room for everybody will probably not be the greatest concern, as there will be beds, but they might be very expensive. And, not a lot of people will go there unless they have a pre-booked room or a friend’s house to stay at.

Electricity

Reliable electricity is a factor that could easily be a problem during the world cup. Especially for tourists who are not used to the sometimes erratic behavior of South Africa’s electricity. Personally I wouldn’t mind of some tourists had a few hours without electricity in their hotel room, but I do see how it would be great problem if pubs lost their power and their television screens went black in the middle of an important match. However, here’s the good news:

Now 12 of South Africa’s neighboring countries have promised to provide electricity to prevent power cuts during the World Cup. And that should be a good guarantee for all pub owners in South Africa.

Transportation during the World Cup

Transportation is also a crucial factor for South Africa to succeed as the host of the World Cup. South Africa has never really had a functioning public transportation system. And as far as I am concerned, this will be their greatest challenge during the world cup. The traffic will probably be insane, people will be in the streets, and the lack of public transportation will put a massive pressure on car rental and taxi companies.

However, some cities have recently seen great improvements and developments with new first class train and bus services. The latest was Johannesburg’s brand new Bus Rapid Transit. There has also been more requirements to safety and standard of the private mini bus taxis, which are the most popular means of transportation for locals and will be an important part of transporting tourists during the world cup. The minister of Transportation in South Africa has also been repeating lately that “you will be safe in South Africa” and that they will do everything necessary to ensure everybody’s safety.

What I am still waiting to hear is specific plans for how to transport all the tourists around. I have not heard about any shuttle buses or other ways to help people get from their hotel to the stadiums, and back. Safely. But what I have heard and what reality is, are of course two different things.

Crime during the World Cup

I wont go in detail on this one, as I have already commented on this in these two posts:

The Truth about Crime and Safety for Travelers in Africa

South Africa 2010 – Tourism Boom

My personal prediction is that with all the extra security efforts, you as a tourist can feel just as safe, or safer, in South Africa during the World Cup as you can at any other time. Which means that you have to know where you are going, be aware of how you act, what you do, etc. There is a lot of crime, but there are ways to avoid it.

So, will South Africa be ready for 2010?

Personally I wont even try to predict the smoothness of South Africa’s huge event next year. But I do think they will be as ready as the ever could. And I know that I will be in Cape Town during the world cup, and I will be very excited to see how it all comes together. I can’t wait to for the amazing atmosphere, the life in the streets, the crowded sports bars, the excitement of the people and the massive “crazyness” that will come with it. It will be a fun two weeks, whatever happens with the transportation, electricity and what not.