Image: Gallo Images/Lisa Hinatowicz
Steven Covey writes “Putting first things first means organising and executing around your most important priorities. It is living and being driven by the principles you value most not by the agendas and forces surrounding you.”
With such high unemployment and the SA economy in the doldrums, surely the country’s agenda and focus should be prioritising fixing road infrastructure, education, the health system, township development, the housing backlog, crime, etc, rather than to add the 2027 Women’s Fifa World Cup soccer event to drown taxpayers.
Can SA afford a feel-good party when the majority of citizens are sinking in debt? Economists predict long years ahead before the SA economy can miraculously recover.
Those involved in such dreams will be advancing economic spin-offs, marketing the country, etc, the same arguments as the previous 2010 World Cup brigades. Recently there was another dubious scheme to spend R1bn on English soccer club Tottenham Hotspur.
And now Safa is on a mission to bid for the expensive Fifa 2017 Women’s World Cup event. These kind of international events don’t come cheap for any host country. Retrospectively, some people who invested their hard-earned money due to the 2010 World Cup euphoria and promises of high returns are still struggling to recover.
The illusive 2010 World Cup spin-offs are yet to materialise. South Africans seems to be proud to keep the aging white elephant stadiums’ lights on during the day while the country is going through an electricity crisis. Countries with eyes on the future do things differently.
We saw how China bulldozed the Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium because it needed that land for something better to advance its development strategy. Obsession with the past will imprison Africa’s future development. It won’t be surprising if the ministry of sport is already contemplating hosting a three-day conference on a World Cup event rather than investing to build recreational facilities across the country to develop sports.
Even the yellow and green dreadlocks hair made in China 2010 mascot cat Zakumi is a forgotten relic and gathering dust at some museum waiting for a future archeological tender. The priority is to get our house in order first, then we invite visitors to experience the beauty of SA.
Jerry Tsie, Pretoria
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