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The Weekly update to life in post-apartheid South Africa.

What a shambles - the soccer world cup that is.

Durban is running empty with 80% of Fifa bookings being withdrawn. So what happened to the nearly million overseas visitors that they envisaged will attend the matches here in sunny South Africa? What happened to the half-million they predicted just four months ago?

And that's not the end of it. It's only the beginning. Police have cracked-down on pirate clothing (especially the soccer jerseys) and other items connected to the world cup. Now they've maybe realised the potential of the South African textile industry if not for all these cheap Chinese imports.

Our security might match with Fifa regulations, but the rest is a mess. Medical services has been taken away from South Africans as the so-called prime medical facilities gear up for the cup. The problem is that they cannot provide sufficient services nor medical care to the locals, how on earth will they ever cope with an emergency situation during the world cup? There's a shortage of staff and medical supplies and facilities. Anyone (local) suffering from broken bones will have to wait 'till after July 11th. No surgery will be performed unless life threatening. At the main Durban government hospital it takes (currently) a day to receive any sort of attention. There is a constant shortage of beds, not to talk about supplies or staff.

And here's an organisation with some balls : AfriForum Youth today sent an official request to FIFA to remove the praise for Peter Mokaba on its website and to take steps to commemorate the victims of farm attacks and HIV/Aids in South Africa and to honour them during the Soccer World Cup. AfriForum Youth also announced that they will take steps to reveal the true legacy of Peter Mokaba to the world if FIFA was not willing to comply with the requests.

Then we heard today that it would cost in the region of a billion Rand to fix our national roads. Too many hands in the coffers, no money to maintain what was given to the ruling party by their "oppressors". We've seen the steady decline and poor repair jobs on our main routes. It is (sort of) general knowledge that properly tarred roads have a lifespan of twenty years. Yet nothing has really been done to maintain the existing infrastructure. Sure our highways around the main soccer stadia has been upgraded (or still in progress) and it's been long overdue, but not at government expense. There's already plans to pepper the motorist with toll-gates all over the place. And I can just about guarantee that there will be plenty government officials with a finger in the pie somewhere along the line.

The ANC Youth League has once again showed no respect nor concilliation tendencies toward the Afrikaner. On 10 March a memorandum was handed to the ANCYL but the police prevented this from happening. The memo was thrown on the street and trampled on. First the ANCYL refused to accept the memorandum and the police refused the right of Afriforum members holding a protest at the ANCYL offices. This protest was against hate speach for which Malema is well-known worldwide.

And slowly but surely we see government officials lower down the ranks throwing their weight around to "show" white citizens "who is in power".

This is just one of many such cases. The truth be told, we probably deserve this kind of treatment when reflecting on what happened during the apartheid years, or not? Isn't our nation about reconcilliation and working together to improve the lifes of all South Africans? What really surprise me is the frequency these things are happening. And so soon after becoming a real democracy.

Simple examples of our people co-existing can be seen all over. What came as a shock to those Pretoria Blue Bulls supporters was the brilliant semi-final Super 14 rugby game held in Soweto at the Orlando stadium. Since it's been held up as a major example of what can happen when we put our differences aside. An Afrikaans personality joked that supporters can travel there by car as there will be busses to transport them home - sharp comment but far from the truth. Soccer and rugby supporters, traditionally black and white sport, came together - and Soweto wants more (rugby)!

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