National News
Cup closes racial gaps
2010-07-10 11:26
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The 2010 World Cup has closed the racial gap between South Africans,
organising committee chief executive Danny Jordaan said on Saturday.
"We have seen black and white side by side at fan parks and
stadiums,[when] for many years these people were prohibited by law to
sit together," he said at a press briefing in Sandton on the impact of
the World Cup.
"The demographics at stadiums really showed
football contributed towards nation building."
Jordaan said the
organising committee had five objectives going into the World Cup and
nation building was a key aspect of these objectives.
Jordaan
said among lessons to be learnt from the 2010 World Cup was strict
project management and monitoring deliver the best.
He said
contrary to reports that SA was a crime infested country, they have been
congratulated for delivering the most safe tournament thus far.
"The
feed back we got is that people are happy about our safety."
He
singled out the specialised World Cup courts as one of the new things to
be established for the world cup.
"People are arrested today and
tomorrow they are sentenced," he said.
"This could be a benefit
to the justice system in SA if adopted."
Jordaan said another
lesson from the tournament was the undying support of South Africans.
"The support did not die when Bafana Bafana was knocked out, instead
people rallied behind other teams," he said.
The ministry of
sport and recreation said in a statement that sports has been known to
break all barriers.
"South Africa has been fortunate to have a
number of sporting events that have brought the nation together. This
should be embraced," the ministry said.
The ministry further said
it supports the decision of the SA Rugby Union (Saru) and the Golden
Lions to take the first Tri-Nation match between South Africa and New
Zealand to Soweto in August.
"This goes a long way in solidifying
the nation building celebratory mood that the 2010 Fifa World Cup has
started," it said.
England 2018 Ambassadors, John Barnes and Andy
Cole were also impressed with South Africa's hosting of the World Cup.
Barnes said he was impressed with the spirit of South Africans and
the support they have shown for World Cup.
"I hope that the
people of England will be as passionate about our 2018 bid," he said.
Cole added that they would be taking lessons from the tournament to
England to help their bid.
"We are committed to taking the
learning we have gained here to England both for the remaining stages of
our bid process and hopefully the 2018 Fifa World Cup," he said.