Will World Cup bring South Africans closer?

By Barry Moody
LONDON (Reuters) - Beyond the angst about whether South Africa will pull off a successful soccer World Cup next year is a more profound question -- can the competition bring the races closer 15 years after the end of apartheid?
Organizers of the competition, Africa`s biggest sports event, are hoping for a moment akin to the legendary appearance of Nelson Mandela in a Springbok shirt when South Africa won the 1995 rugby World Cup in Johannesburg.
That gesture forged an iconic symbol of national unity from a sport passionately loved by whites and had a lasting impact in calming their raw fears a year after majority rule began.
The nation has come a long way since then, but distrust and tensions persist between the races and, in a sports-mad nation, successful staging of the most-watched competition on earth could mark a new watershed.
"The 1995 rugby World Cup helped establish South Africa as the `Rainbow Nation`. The 2010 FIFA World Cup will see that nation come of age," organizing committee chief executive Danny Jordaan told Reuters.
He said the current Confederations Cup tournament, seen as a dress rehearsal for next year`s extravaganza and watched by multiracial crowds, had already shown "the capability that soccer has in bridging the divide between different races...
"It is my belief that the FIFA World Cup will have an even greater effect."
Jordaan is not alone in trusting in the potential of the tournament to have a major impact at home, weakening divisions and misunderstanding and also drawing more whites into football -- traditionally a black South Africans` game.
"You can be a fairly right-wing white Afrikaner and still feel an immense sense of pride when you see your nation is hosting what is the biggest show on earth, even if you are a die-hard rugby fan," said Richard Maguire, editor of South Africa`s football magazine Kick-Off.
"I think definitely the World Cup will have an impact in bringing people together and developing a sense of unity and national pride," he told Reuters.
CAVEATS
But while there is widespread optimism and excitement is building, analysts warn the impact should not be over-estimated.
The only real way to bring South Africans closer is to end the stark wealth disparities that are among the reasons for one of the world`s worst rates of violent crime.
"You can feel good about all this stuff in a stadium but on a Monday morning, when it is raining on your little tin shack held together with pieces of plastic , you may not be feeling so good about South Africa," Maguire said.
"There are those harsh realities underneath that no World Cup is going to take away."  Continued...
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