Different faces of South Africa’s FIFA fever

Historic day for Mandela, South Africa yesterday marks the kick-off of the first FIFA World Cup to be held on the African continent. But the day has a further significance in the history of South Africa. For one: it is the day Nelson Mandela and seven of his comrades were convicted for sabotage. Forty-six years […]

Historic day for Mandela, South Africa yesterday marks the kick-off of the first FIFA World Cup to be held on the African continent. But the day has a further significance in the history of South Africa. For one: it is the day Nelson Mandela and seven of his comrades were convicted for sabotage.

Forty-six years ago, on 11 June 1964, Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Raymond Mhlaba, Denis Goldberg, Andrew Mlangeni, Elias Motsoaledi and Govan Mbeki were found guilty, in the Rivonia Trial, of sabotage.

The following day, the eight, who had expected the death sentence, were each sentenced to a term of life imprisonment.

Goldberg, being white, was separated from the group and incarcerated at Pretoria Central Prison. Mandela and the others arrived on Robben Island in the early hours of the morning of 13 June.

Coincidentally, the 11th of July – the date of the final match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup – is also a historic day in South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle.

It was on 11 July 1963 that the police first raided Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia and made several arrests, including those of Sisulu and Kathrada. Some of the other Rivonia accused were arrested elsewhere.

Mandela was not among them. He was, by then, already a sentenced prisoner. On 7 November 1962 he had been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for leaving the country illegally and inciting workers to strike.

The charges arose from his underground travels in 1962 to several countries in Africa, where he received military training and garnered support for Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear of the Nation), the armed wing of the African National Congress. He also visited London.

The incitement charge arose from his call to workers to stay at home in protest against South Africa becoming a Republic on 31 May 1961.

Initially held in prison in Pretoria, Mandela was sent to Robben Island in late May 1963, but two weeks later was returned, inexplicably to Pretoria, a month before the arrests at Rivonia and elsewhere.

He remained incarcerated with his comrades in Pretoria until the day they were found guilty, 46 years ago, on 11 June.

Eighteen years later, in 1982, Mandela, Sisulu, Mhlaba and Kathrada were transferred from Robben Island to Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland.

After he was diagnosed with Tuberculosis in August 1988, Mandela was treated at Tygerberg Hospital and then at the Constantiaberg MediClinic before being transferred to Victor Verster Prison outside Paarl in December that year.

He was released from the gates of the prison on 11 February 1990.

Goldberg had been released in 1985 and Mbeki in 1987. Sisulu, Kathrada, Mhlaba, Motsoaledi and Mlangeni had been released in October 1989.

The World Cup kick-off day also marks the 22nd anniversary of the famous “Free Mandela Concert” held at London’s Wembley Stadium on 11 June 1988. The concert was billed as his 70th birthday concert, but was staged to highlight the plight of all political prisoners in South Africa and to call for their release.

Zakumi: spirit of South Africa 2010

He’s a fluffy young leopard with green dreadlocks and a wide smile; he’s energetic, enthusiastic, sociable, self-confident and ambitious – and he loves football. Meet Zakumi, the official mascot for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.

For 40 years, each FIFA World Cup tournament has had its own unique mascot. The first was a lion called World Cup Willie, the mascot for the 1966 event, hosted by England.

FIFA and the South Africa 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC) have given the 2010 mascot a distinct personality and personal history.

“One thing is for sure, Zakumi will be first on the dance floor and last off it at the biggest party in the world,” FIFA says on its website. “He symbolizes South Africa and the rest of the African continent through his self-confidence, pride, hospitality, social skills and warm-heartedness.”

Born on 16 June 1994, the name “Zakumi” is a composition of “ZA” (South Africa’s international country code) and “kumi”, a ki-Swahili word that means 10. Since South Africa aims to make 2010 a truly African World Cup, the LOC decided to use a word from a language widely spoken across the continent.

Another detail worth noting is that Zakumi was born on 16 June 1994, a day and a year of great significance in South Africa.

The 16th of June 1976 saw the beginning of the Soweto youth uprising, when schoolchildren took to the streets to protest against apartheid, many of them cut down by police gunfire.

And 1994 was the year that South Africans of all races cast their votes for the first time to elect a new post-apartheid democratic government.

“The big party is in 2010, when Zakumi turns 16, but we will also have had 16 years of democracy then,” says LOC chief executive Danny Jordaan said. Zakumi is therefore “the ambassador for all our hopes, dreams and aspirations in South Africa.”

Vuvuzela: SA football’s beautiful noise

What’s plastic, a metre long, brightly coloured and sounds like an elephant? It’s the vuvuzela, the noise-making trumpet of South African football fans, and it’s come to symbolise the sport in the country.

It’s an instrument, but not always a musical one. Describing the atmosphere in a stadium packed with thousands of fans blowing their vuvuzelas is difficult. Up close it’s an elephant, sure, but en masse the sound is more like a massive swarm of very angry bees.

And when there’s action near the goal mouth, those bees go really crazy.

To get that sound out requires lip flexibility and lung strength – in short, a fair amount of technique. So be sure to get in some practice before attending a South African football match, or you the sound you produce may cause some amusement in the seats around you!

Vuvuzela supplier Boogieblast offers this advice: “Put your lips inside the mouthpiece and almost make a ‘farting’ sound. Relax your cheeks and let your lips vibrate inside the mouthpiece. As soon as you get that trumpeting sound, blow harder until you reach a ridiculously loud ‘boogying blast’.

R Kelly flies high ahead of 2010 opener

Less than a day away from the biggest gig of his career, opening the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa, international R&B star R Kelly joked that he was so delighted to have his song chosen as the tournament’s official anthem, he would have been happy to walk to Johannesburg, let alone fly.

The American producer has won multiple awards during a glittering career, including three Grammys, but this, the 31-year-old says, stands alone as the highlight.

“This is my World Cup, musically, and I’m very honoured to be a part of it,” said the American, whose trademark song I Believe I Can Fly is clearly the mantra by which he lives his life.

“Any time you are involved in something this big and this historical, it automatically lets you know that you can fly too, in your own life. I believe I can fly. But I couldn’t believe that this particular song was chosen, although I felt it was custom-made for this event.”

R Kelly will be one of 1 581 performers at the opening ceremony at Soccer City in Johannesburg on Friday, alongside a host of big names from around the world, including TKZee, Shakira, Alicia Keys and the Black Eyed Peas, as well as Algeria’s Khaled, Ghana’s Osibisa and Hip Hop Pantsula.

It will be watched by hundreds of millions of people in more than 215 countries, and is likely to be the biggest pop extravaganza in the continent’s history.

Kelly hopes the occasion, and his song will leave a lasting legacy in Africa and beyond. “I want my song to go beyond what I wrote it for and, perhaps, touch people all around the world and inspire them,” he said.

“I’m really hoping that with this song we can promote world peace first, and help with global warming, and humanity around the world. This is my hope. I believe that music can guide us and lead us into a world of peace.”

For the next few weeks, however, football is the name of the game. So, who does the R&B star believe will leave the Rainbow Nation as world champions this summer? “As far as that is concerned I have no idea,” he laughed. “So, I’m going for South Africa!”

The gates to Soccer City open at 10am (local time) on 11 June, with the opening ceremony starting at 2pm. Fans are urged to be seated by 1pm.

South Africa ‘never before this united’

He may have skippered the first South Africa team to play on the world stage, but Lucas Radebe says nothing can compare with the excitement currently sweeping the host country with 24 hours to go before the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ kicks off.

For Radebe, who wore the captain’s armband for Bafana Bafana for many years, the thought of what lies ahead for the Rainbow Nation over the coming month is giving him “goose-bumps”.

He told Fifa.com: “I’m not sure if I will be able to sleep the night before kick-off. This is big for us, bigger than any of us have seen in our lifetime. I have been fortunate to play at two World Cups, but nothing compares with a feeling of hosting this tournament on our own soil, absolutely nothing.”

Clive Barker, who was coach of the Bafana Bafana side that won the 1996 African Nations Cup, was in agreement, saying nothing in the country’s sporting history could compare with hosting the FIFA World Cup before a watching planet.

From 2pm (Central Africa Time) on Friday, the world’s attention will focus on Johannesburg’s Soccer City for the start of the tournament’s opening ceremony. By 4pm, when Carlos Parreira’s sidekick off against Mexico, the entire country is set for an explosion of euphoria, and Barker believes it can mark “a new dawn”.

For many South Africans, there are three notable moments in their recent history: the first democratic elections on 27 April 1994, the 1995 Rugby World Cup triumph, and the footballers’ African Nations Cup success in February 1996.

Recalling the third of those events, Barker said: “I remember that day when we won the Nations Cup, the whole country went crazy. Even today, I still look back at that day and smile. To me, it showed the power of sport in changing a country.” www.southafrica.info