Zuma hails 2010 World Cup

SOUTH AFRICA’S President Jacob Zuma has hailed the way the 2010 World Cup has shattered the racial barriers, which used to divide his people, helped turn the Rainbow Nation into a united country proud to be represented by the same flag and given Africans a reason to be proud of their identity.

Africa’s biggest economy has struggled to bury the scars of a past blighted by the cruelty of the apartheid system, which split its people into two different classes of black and white and, 16 years after independence, South Africa is still reeling from the effects of that racial divide.

The majority of its black people have remained enmeshed in poverty, leading to social problems like the explosion of xenophobic attacks on foreigners and unrest in the townships, while its minority white population lives in marked wealth and controls the economy.

The divisions have been apparent in sport with the blacks mainly devoted to football and the whites being associated with cricket and rugby and there are areas at the Loftus Verseveld Stadium in Pretoria, the home of the Bulls, which are virtually no-go areas for the blacks when the Super 14 champions are playing at home.

But the South Africans, to their credit, have showed remarkable unity during this World Cup and Zuma believes hosting the tournament has taught his country how to look beyond their racial differences and understand that they all belong to the Rainbow Nation.


Herald.co.zw