South Africa World Cup 2010 Logo

USA ‘94 for the way it brilliantly combines a moving football with the national flag.

I like the 2010 logo.. very colorful nad lively, just like Africa.

Mexico 70 & 86 and USA 94. I miss the classic design of the ball.

I agree, Craig. It’s a bit ironic that the USA one was one of the best ones – certainly the one with less noise from the most recent ones.

I wonder what Erik Spierkerman has to say about 2010’s design.

http://www.businessinnovationinsider.com/2006/06/bad_design_at_the_world_cup.php

It’s beautiful, to be sure. Fluid and moving and creative. The curves are indicitive of the lines in an architectural drawing I saw of their new, feature statdiums.

Surely this is a sign that we will see more creative football in 2010 and not repeats of dry, static, regimental style (hello germany) we’ve witnessed this year. The German logo “design” (I choke back even using that world for it) looks like it was created as an elementary school project. I refused to buy anything with it on this year. It was an embarrasement to germany.

And if anyone thinks that South Africa cannot successfully pull this one off, read this:

http://www.southafrica.info/ess_info/sa_glance/sports/features/events10.htm

Modern and creative logo, but I’d like it.

its ok, but i almost dont think its original enough. its a bit cliche too. i cant believe how old i’ll be for next world cup.

[...] 刚刚在worldcupblog.org看到，2010年南非世界杯的logo刚刚release了，这一贴还顺便给出了从66年开始的历届世界杯的logo。觉得有收藏价值，就都copy过来了。 [...]

croatia 2010 any 1

2006 is the best logo.

I think the prior logos that best convey the image of the event are the 1986 Mexico logo and the 1998 France logo, each of which incorporates both a football and a globe (how do you know it’s a ‘world’ event unless someone tells you?).

Several of the logos incorporate major elements of the national flags of the hosts (1966 England, 1978 Argentina, 1982 Spain, 1990 Italy, 1994 US, 1998 France), but I think that’s exactly the thing the designers should be trying to avoid. After all, it’s a celebration of a sport, not a celebration of the host country.

Although both the 2002 Japan/Korea and the 2006 Germany logos are pretty enough in their way, I think they both fail as logos: Too many colors, too many shapes and lines, and they’re not focussed on a central idea (okay, maybe the German one is focussed on ’smileyness’). If you didn’t know what the World Cup looked like and what it was for, these logos wouldn’t tell you.

A logo is a marketing/sales tool. It needs to be simple and direct; it has to tell you in the first viewing what it represents. As the original poster says, a lot of these are done on the clip-art principle.

Personally, I think the strongest visual image among them is 1970 Mexico, but _pink_? Yowtch.

It would appear that in fact 1974 was the first year to have a logo, and before then, there were posters since 1930: http://www.sportslogos.net/league.php?l=71

i think it’s great. Sure, the idea is cliche, but they all are. I don’t think it’s a bad thing.

The design is much better than most of the others: bold and dynamic. Probably France ‘98 and USA ‘94 are my other two favorites.

I’ll go with Mexico ‘86…a nice combination of b/w & color, is simple, and conveys the meaning of the event through the hemisphere graphics. As for the SA 2010 one, it’s just a bit too busy but it was a nice approach to try and incorporate the continent map into the design. The Germany ‘06 one is pretty sad. USA ‘94 looks too much like a postage stamp to me, but it was a novel way of integrating the flag into the thing. A better one might have been to use the top of the statue of liberty (neck up) and integrate a ball into the torch flame. Or not… I’m an IT manager not a graphic designer!

I love the South Africa logo, because the attention is on a soccer player, as well as the trophy.

The world is well represented in the French and Mexican logos, , but the beauty of this logo is that there is a sportsman in the middle of it all, which represents a person, which is greater than the world.

I love the line work.

The lines on the 2010 logo form the African map with the South African flag colours.

I LOVE THE ITALIA ONE MAYBE CAUSE IM ITALIAN LOL.BUT I LOVE HOW ITS SO ABSTRACT BUT OVER ALL THE AFRICAN LOGO IS THE BEST.

I like it. The 1974 one is pretty boring, so is Mexico 1986 and Italy 1990. I love the ones with a bit of color like 2002.

the france one is really good. does anyone know if south africa is in the same time zone as germany. i think it is.

Considering the state of affairs that have persisted in South Africa since the end of apartheid, the logo should show someone getting robbed then stabbed. The security situation in South Africa is deplorable; considering that the police force was designed to oppress blacks and not to enforce laws or investigate crimes. Unfortunately, I’m going to be sitting this one out.

Mexico 70 gets my vote. Bold graphics and a now fashionable retro design make it something I’d wear on a t-shirt.
If you’re Mexican or familiar with Mexican snack products, the Germany 2006 design looks almost exactly like the logo for Sabritas.
http://www.sabritas.com.mx/index2.html

I think it’s a beautiful logo — it forms the map of the african continent (even the little island of equitorial guinnea is represented with the left arm of the football player) — is this the first logo to represent a continent as opposed to a country”

The colors are South Africa’s flag colors.

The player – may be a representation of black people?

Colorful logo and fitting for the continent to host the tournament.

Hey, I hadn’t realized that it showed the outline of Africa. The player’s upper foot could even be the horn of Africa.

So is that styalized cup symbol going to be on all logos from now on? Korea, Germany, SAfrica… It looked great in Korea-Japan, becuase it looks quite Asian, but for the same reason it looks quite out-of-place on the South African logo.

2010 – not bad, but a bit too much going on,
2002 – kinda cool, would be fun if it was actually also a lethal martial arts weapon
2006 – looks like a kids tv show …
1998 – the sun sets on the french empire …
1986 – breaking news …
1978 – um … is that 2 guys humping a ball, or one guy copping a ball in the cojonas?
1966 – has a real ‘bugger off rest of the world’ feel to it, anyone else think the ball looks more like a fist coming out at you?

The footballer in the 2010 logo must be Angolan, too, because he’s attempting a bicycle kick.

Not bad…i like the german one best though!

I really like the 2010 one, though I could do without the purple swoosh along the bottom and right sides. I think the player, the abstract continent and the country/year would suffice.

Perhaps I’m partial, but I like France’s ‘98 logo, too. Simple and classy.

No question, 2002 was the best, but 2006 is not bad. The rest are embarassing.

The colours here are not so much a representation of the South African flag, as much as they are a representation of the Pan African brotherhood. Blue for Madagascar, admittedly, is where it starts becoming South African.

Also, the Espana 82 logo here doesn’t seem to be complete. This fuller representation seems to be more international.

I love the design. Also, I see it has the colors of the German flag, or predominatly the colors of the German flag. Does South Africa have the same colors? Yeah maybe because Belgium also has black/red/gold. That could be why, because of the influence from Belgium.

I also like the German 2006 one. It expresses joy.

I Love the 2006 World cup logo,its very funny.
But the 2010 logo its a beautiful too.

I must say that the 2010 logo is growing on me.
And just in response to Gary from the USA – my country is a beautiful vibrant place and not the crime nest you make it sound like. Fine with me if ignorant people stay away. Can’t wait to see the rest of you down in Cape Town!!

[...] Sieht ja ganz nett aus, wenngleich hier der “Pokal” der FIFA noch schrecklicher ins Bild tritt als beim Deutschen Logo. Dort hat es sich zwischen den verrückten Smileys besser verstecken können. Ganz toll und “afrikanisch” die Farbgestaltung – Ockergelb, Schwarz, Rot und Grün ergeben eine Form von Afrika, die sowohl Vielfalt als auch Vitalität ausdrückt. Könnte einen frischen Trend im Sportdesign hervorrufen. Nur der Fußball mag nicht so recht dazu passen. Wenn man sich die bisherigen WM-Logos ansieht, wird man feststellen, dass dies übrigends das erste Logo ist, das den Spieler und nicht den Ball in den Mittelgrund stellt. [...]

I kind of like it :)
Eloise, don’t worry…the English hooligans will sort out the crime for us in 2010 :P

No, I don’t like at all, also my friends in the office..

Why they do some think bad and ugly like that???!!

Oh, the 2010 logo is UGLY! Trust my countrymen to come up with something that wants to do too much and thus fails to be good through a sharp focus. Simple, classic design seem to be beyond a generation growing up on the bells and whistles of internet sites. Just look at the font: it seems to have been chosen by someone delighted to discover 100s of fonts on a computer, overwhelmed by that treasure and therefore unable to make a good design choice. Ugly ugly ugly.

I saw the Fifa 2010 logo only since yesterday. Maybe I have already used to the 2006 logo and am biased. Though it’s a bit busy with many colors, I do like the 2010 logo.

[...] 2010 World Cup Logo – what do you think? [...]

Like it. Its abstract keeps your thougts running. Represents the World Cup in Africa.

The 2010 logo seems ok to me. From the colors, to the image of a footballer down to the font. Its nice. The logo improve as time goes by. We can see that technology wayback in 1966 England down to 2006 Germany is a bit far. I cant hardly imagine what did England use in creating logos? are they made by computers? Did Mexicans used computers that time? But compare today. Japan And South Korea did a wonderful logo. So as Germany. For me, the logo that really rocks is the logo of Germany(2006) while the logo that needs improvement or poor for me, is the 1974, west germany.

The Germany logo is the ugliest one up there. It looks like something from some asian gameshow. The best one is the original. It realy gets the point about the location across. The new one is pretty good , and i like the african theme it’s got.

Is anyone else worried that the next WC is in South Africa. Not exactly a soccer Mecca. FIFA must also be worried as it has Australia as a back up location. SA hosted the cricket WC several years ago and it was very ordinary. And SA is a cricket country….

The South Africa 2010 Logo , is not an impressive artistic logo. There was no deep thinking. What’s all the fuss in drawing the african continent and some coloured stripes, a football and a black player doing a back kick!? I can do better myself as I like to design logos for major events in soccer and olympics games. I liked so much the germany 2006. Simple , Nice and colourful.

I would like to say that the 2006 logo is the most appealing to me. Now for those comments from those who don’t know anything about the South-African flag, I will enligten you. The colors red,yellow,black,green,red,blue and some white all represent the different parties. This flage was designed by the ANC (Ruling Party, i.e Government). ANC’s colors are black,green and yellow. The purple represents the rest of the country.

South-Africa being still prejudiced by apartheid is quite dumb as it shows a negative bias towards my country. I would also like to tell you that the SAP (South-African Police) is not designed on a apartheid system, rather on Roman-Dutch-Law. This was introduced in the 80’s.

i’m willing to bet an African American or dark nation/team will will the cup in 2010 as it is a black person on the logo.

My bets are on:
Ghana, Cameroon, Ecuador, France, or Brasil…

Too bad, wouldve liked to see holland or germany or argentina…. or italy….

Australia would be a good place to hold the World Cup. when it does, I will go. I’ve always wanted to go there.

Africa, good for them. I hope Ecuador does well.

South Africa is more than a soccer mecca – it is a sports mecca. But soccer in this country is about more than million dollar players and their wives. It’s about the kids in the townships who play soccer on dirt fields…it’s about the kids who cut their team colours from the newspapers and use them to make wallpaper for the shacks. It’s about the kids who save up R1 a day to buy a ticket to go to a match…and it’s about the Vuvuzela – an instrument that sounds out the joy of the game at every match.

South Africa has it’s problems…but it has a pulse and beat unlike any other. You can only understand it once you felt the roar of South Africans in a stadium…heard the chants in Zulu and isiXhosa and felt the stamping of millions of feet. Seen hundereds of taxi drivers parked outside a stadium so people can stand on their roofs.

South Africa has a magic people…get ready for 2010.

I think the South African Fifa 2010 os da Bomb. Its reveals the beauty of Africa nad keeps the focus on the ball, if u get wht i am saying. Zimbabwe is peaceful despite the unstable currency. will never trade it for any

alternative version of logo

http://worldcup2010identity.com/

[...] Desde Domestika: el logo del próximo mundial de fútbol. [...]

The logo – its color or size – does not mean more than what I feel as african! You ‘NON AFRICAN LIVING PEOPLE’is time to cool and know that you got no choice all, just come to AFRICA and feel what/how we feel. Be positive! “AFRICA” loves you all! Please, keep commenting and we will keep waiting for you up to 2010!God bless Africa and its World Cup Logo!

Tondox
from Mozambique or just:
‘FIFA2010 World Cup “next door”‘

I was shocked when reading the comments from the obviously ignorate people on this site, I have to aggree with Shadreck that until you have been in SA you have no idea about the passion and love our country has for sport, let alone soccer. to have the cheek to say you are worried about us and us being a ‘mecca’ is sad.

trust me when I say, do anything to get yourself here in 2010, it will be the best few weeks of your life, and obviously a eye opener.

ps our flag is those colours.

I find the 2010 World Cup logo a disgrace. It is way too busy, and there’s seems to be no design continuity. The typography is shocking. I don’t think that this design was considered at all, and find it frustrating as there are many talented SA designers that could have designed something solid.

To explain the logo:

The “feel” of the font & stick-man is meant as a reference to Khoi-san rock-art. The Khoi were some of the original inhabitants of South Africa.

The stick-man is doing a bicycle kick over his head, which is meant to show the passion of African soccer players.

The colours are vibrant and energetic, showing the culture of South Africa’s people.

The swoosh up the right is the South African flag, also forming the eastern part of the image of Africa the continent. The western half is shown by the golden area underneath the man. The entire African continent is represented because South Africa is happy to share this as an African World Cup with it’s fellow African countries – not fight over the rights like Australia & New Zealand did for the Rugby WC. It’s time for the World Cup to outgrow single countries and become regional events – otherwise only 15 countries will host a World Cup in an average life-span.

The logo is brilliant – it’s clever, thoughtful, colourful, energetic – everything that embodies the goodness about Africa & South Africa.

And for you ignoramus’ that say South Africa is hardly a soccer nation – you are such a fool! You will cringe one day with embarrasment!

why is everyone posting from singapore

Bravo! South Africa! That logo looks GREAT! It says so much, while getting the message accross. Unlike Germany’s 2006 logo..what is that? A bowl of smiling fruit?! Give me a break. The 2010 logo has the same amount of colours that the 2006 logo has. And the colour of the stick man is black because it will look hideous in any other colour! Can u imagine a pink or orange stick man?!

“Is anyone else worried that the next WC is in South Africa. Not exactly a soccer Mecca. FIFA must also be worried as it has Australia as a back up location. SA hosted the cricket WC several years ago and it was very ordinary. And SA is a cricket country…. ”

And to this jealous Australian who thinks that SA is not a soccer mecca and won’t be ready for 2010…ur a bit too ‘down under’, u need to ‘come up’ from that crocodile infested country and get with the program. What other sport does Australia play besides Rugby and Cricket..mmmh? Some mecca Australia is.

To the rest of you soccer crazy fans!!! Go to South Africa!!!! It’s gonna be one mind blowing, adrenaline pumping experience! Man..I can’t hardly wait!

Why?
Why did they go with this logo?
Why?
The logo does have some good areas to it, but hell, it looks like it is still in development phase.
Judging by the rate that stadiums are being built this logo was probably chosen because it really represents the South African Worl Cup; uncompleted.
Mark my words, this event is not going to be remembered as one of the good world cups.

Every South African who does’nt feel this logo is absolutely unintelligent as this logo says a lot about AFRICA (1st being colourful, which we are and our flags gives a fair reflection of that) and the type of Futebol played in this continent, oh i almost forgot that Blacks are almost the only ones in South Africa who watch African Futebol, everyone else is flippin Man UTD FAN OR ANY of the ENGLISH TEAMS!!
In my group of friends , i’m the only one who knows about local futebol here and i was born in ENGLAND and most Afrikaners dont give a flying F*&^ about SA Hosting 2010, it was like someone died in our neighborhood when WE won the BID because everyone just came up with another reason why SA should fail and why this country has limited resources…And i think evry1 in SA who wants this WC not to be Hosted Because of Crime & Aids is Actually Hiding behind those reasons because i’m sure every1 who voted for us hosting new this fact and those nowhere else in AFRICA could a Tournament this prestigious can be hosted, Bacause FIFA DID EMPHASISED that 2010 is Africa’s turn of HOSTING….SA is maybe not one of the Euro countries in terms of resources but it is not a third world country as well!!!
I think since we are already ahead of Schedule, We can make it in Time & if any of the racist AFRIKANERS dont like it then do what all your kind have done, “MOVE TO BLOODY AUSTRALIA, MATE” & Suck KANGAROO TiTTies!!!

To those of you who are uneducated with regards on who designed the 2010 world cup logo..

1.It had nothing to do with any political party

2. It was designed by a Portuguese South African, who by the the way is an international award winning designer.

So those South Africans who seem to be posting only negative comments, because immigration authorities did not allow you to leave SA, please lighten up.

Stop reading press statements and statements from people who have no experience in South Africa and who want to derail the 2010 WC. Yes we have a high crime rate and as South Africans we are teaming together to ensure that all visitors who grace our shores are made to feel most welcomed and safe.

So stop being so negative, stop believing in the crap people tell you, South Africa has hosted hundreds of International events with huge successes, the people are amazing, the staduims are being built, there are enough existing staduims, we have some of the best hotels in the world, some of the best restaurants in the world, we have one of the most advance road systems in the world – and hey you can even drink water out of the tap….

So, in conclusion, there is nothing to worry about. You will have an awesome African experience while watching the great game of football while enjoying the hospitality of our countrymen (not to mention the beautiful women)…

Proudly South African!!

Which South Africa are you guys living in? I’d love to go there!!!

The South Africa i live in still discriminates against people based on race except it’s not called “racism” but rather “transformation” and “affirmative action”.

The South Africa i live in has a ridiculous number of people being murdered and raped on a daily basis. The police service are powerless to do anything about it and what’s more – they are laregely corrupt. Why? because they get paid almost nothing while our so called, “Government” ride around in the most expensive luxury cars and the vice president takes vacations that cost the taxpayer R700,000.00 (around $100,000) a pop.

So while those 25 million people here that live in aboslute poverty are trying to work for their next meal our government officials are partying it up and enjoying all the wonderful locations that Richard mentioned in his post.

Who gives a sh!t about hosting a World Cup when all this is going on. More people were murdered in South Africa (last year alone) than the number of people who died as a result of war in the Middle East.

And of course, what will our government do with the money they make from hosting the World Cup….have another party of course….screw helping the poeple.

Not Proudly South African!!

zoe | July 14th, 2006 at 2:30 pm

South Africa is more than a soccer mecca – it is a sports mecca. But soccer in this country is about more than million dollar players and their wives. It’s about the kids in the townships who play soccer on dirt fields…it’s about the kids who cut their team colours from the newspapers and use them to make wallpaper for the shacks. It’s about the kids who save up R1 a day to buy a ticket to go to a match…and it’s about the Vuvuzela – an instrument that sounds out the joy of the game at every match.

South Africa has it’s problems…but it has a pulse and beat unlike any other. You can only understand it once you felt the roar of South Africans in a stadium…heard the chants in Zulu and isiXhosa and felt the stamping of millions of feet. Seen hundereds of taxi drivers parked outside a stadium so people can stand on their roofs.

Posted from Canada
_____________________

CRY ME A RIVER!!!

To Realist

I think u should immigrate now. Offices open at 8am and close at 5pm.
Bhoohoo..let me just wipe a quick tear..after ur pathetic attempt to diss RSA! dude this is not a blog for outrageous and over the top criminal stats.
Ur post has nothin to do with WC2010.
Cheers!

Aman | July 21st, 2006 at 5:16 pm

Bravo! South Africa! That logo looks GREAT! It says so much, while getting the message accross. Unlike Germany’s 2006 logo..what is that? A bowl of smiling fruit?! Give me a break. The 2010 logo has the same amount of colours that the 2006 logo has. And the colour of the stick man is black because it will look hideous in any other colour! Can u imagine a pink or orange stick man?!

“Is anyone else worried that the next WC is in South Africa. Not exactly a soccer Mecca. FIFA must also be worried as it has Australia as a back up location. SA hosted the cricket WC several years ago and it was very ordinary. And SA is a cricket country…. ”

And to this jealous Australian who thinks that SA is not a soccer mecca and won’t be ready for 2010…ur a bit too ‘down under’, u need to ‘come up’ from that crocodile infested country and get with the program. What other sport does Australia play besides Rugby and Cricket..mmmh? Some mecca Australia is.

To the rest of you soccer crazy fans!!! Go to South Africa!!!! It’s gonna be one mind blowing, adrenaline pumping experience! Man..I can’t hardly wait!

Posted from Canada
__________________________

I love Africa. I’m gonna go see the WC there and I’m excited. Still, I think the logo is racist against white people. should’ve made the stick man green or something. At least Germany’s was a bunch of colours!

I hope South Africa wins the WC! Good luck to you all.

I love Africa. I’m gonna go see the WC there and I’m excited. Still, I think the logo is racist against white people. should’ve made the stick man green or something. At least Germany’s was a bunch of colours!

I hope South Africa wins the WC! Good luck to you all.

To: Jürgen Roos
“I would like to say that the 2006 logo is the most appealing to me. Now for those comments from those who don’t know anything about the South-African flag, I will enligten you. The colors red,yellow,black,green,red,blue and some white all represent the different parties. This flage was designed by the ANC (Ruling Party, i.e Government). ANC’s colors are black,green and yellow. The purple represents the rest of the country.

South-Africa being still prejudiced by apartheid is quite dumb as it shows a negative bias towards my country. I would also like to tell you that the SAP (South-African Police) is not designed on a apartheid system, rather on Roman-Dutch-Law. This was introduced in the 80’s”

First off, you know nothing. It’s not purple, it’s blue. Secondly the colours come from our national flag. Gold/yellow = our gold…Green = the green grasslands on our country…Blue = for the blue open African sky or the two oceans that surround SA…Red = for all the blood shed e.g. the Anglo-Boer War…Black = for the black and coloured people…White = for the european settlers that came in the 1600’s.
All of these colours represent our rainbow nation.

It’s got nothing to do with politics. Stop acting like a smart guy by trying to amaze us with “facts” you obviously know nothing about.

BTW, the 2006 logo is immature, we’ll laughing at that logo a few years from now

Response to “Realist | July 26th, 2006 at 3:51 pm”

This guy is absolutly on the ball. SA is a scary place people. If you walk ANYWHERE you expect to get mugged. And if you do it’s not a surprising thing. The differince is that in other countries you get robbed, and that’s it (maybe beaten). Here you get mugged , stabbed or shot at point-blank and then gang raped by several AIDS infected men.

There was a story (true, of course) of a white boy who was kept in a police holding cell for ONE night. He was gang raped by 18 men for 9 hours straight. After that he couldn’t SEE properly, lost ALOT of blood, got AIDS and was in a wheelchair for a week.

My moms work has been broken into 32 time in 3 years. Sometimes they only steal the curtains.I’ve been mugged twice and have been chased with a knife once, and that’s not considered a lot here, i am a lucky one. EVERY family member of mine in my area have been held up by gun point.My friend has been stabbed with a screw driver this year and they just stole his shoes. My brother had his arm broken 3 months ago after been attacked by 4 black men, after he gave his phone to them they continued to beat him cause it wasn’t ‘not enough.

And I live in a small and relativly ’safe’ place. It’s ever worse in the big cities.

I bet my house on it that atleast 5-10 people WILL get murdered here in 2010.

Oh ya, don’t bring your babies, SA has the highest rate of babies raped here. And 1 out of 4 people (including males) have been raped.

Plus public transport just doesn’t exist here. Come on, ask ANY south african if they’ve used Metro Rail. They’ll probably begin to laugh… and look at you like you’re mental insane. You’ll probably get a “Do you value your life?” or a “Are you %#@!*& mad?!”

I just see the tourists taking pictures of a SA taxi rank and admiring the “african culture”. And a gentlemen coming up to them saying “Eish… where you get that camera? Let me see it…”. Then the pleasant young man pulls out a knife and tells you to run away.

AHHH the ultimate african experience….

Not ONE South african can say this story is unrealistic.

You might say “but this happens all over the world” but here it happens often and everywhere.

I can only take a towel to the beach nowdays, and you just don’t take your phone out in public, unless you want to replace it very quickly.

My point is that when you’re born and raised in SA you’ve seen it all… well except technology. You people overseas see the ‘good side’ of Africa all the time. Come here, I dare you. You’ll be shocked.

MARK MY WORDS

Can some one please tell me when Aulstralia will host the World Cup??? thanx

-chazz

chazz,

Looks like Australia will bid to host the 2018 tournament.

story

Oh thanx for telling me. Is it true that basically all teams that host the World Cup get into the semi-finals or finals??? Most of my friends say that, but I don’t think there right.

-chazz

@ nic….

Bro, you speak out of your orifice, you know the one at the end of your spine…

I have never been broken into, I have never had something taken from me at knife/gun point. “Don’t bring your babies they will be raped”…rubbish!!!

I walk around all the time yakking on my cellphone, I drive with my windows open, I even leave my house open when going to the shops. If you stay away from areas that are infected by crime you perfectly safe.

So I would appreciate you not saying stupid things like “EVERYWHERE you go” – that is bollocks.

I stand by my original comments.

@ realist

Cry me a river mate, affirmative action is designed at uplifting the previously disadvantaged. Which means us whites who have enjoyed the benefits of employment based on skin colour need to take a step back because the sooner we can lift the majority out of poverty the better for our economy and better for futher employment opportunities. You stuck in the old era.

You feel “done in” by affirmative action? Do what I did, started my own venture, I now employ people of all skin colours, my partner is a black man – there are plenty of opportunites all you need is to pull finger china.

Vuvuzela are irritating, I hope they get banned for the WC. Most ppl don’t watch local soccer becoz of them. I sure alot of ppl heard them when Manutd came for their pre-season tour. We won’t be hearing any wonderful fans/team chants in 2010, just that bloody Vuvuzela

HAVE TO SAY, I think the logo for 2010 looks FANTASTIC. The only one coming close is Japan’s 2002 logo. SA is all about colour, as we are a colourful “rainbow” nation.

MONEY WELL SPENT! Looks like previous logos were very cheaply done.

South Africa 2010 – The logo looks awesome!

Africa looks like an even better place to play some football!!

Nkosi Sikelela

I think that the logo embraces the sense of south africanism. It also shows the South African National colours. I love the way the african continent is shaped. The stick man is a symbol of the khoi people who were some of the first inhibitants of south africa. All in all, its a job well done. I would like to congradulate Swish Design for a great logo. Thank You

ALL South Africans that dont want WC2010 should go & immigrate….
Let me tell you the Reasons why us White South Africans don’t want this WC!
1. When it was our Administration to rule the Country, SA was Isolated in any Sporting codes and 1994 after the Natives took over with their non racial policies then the country could compete in World Sporting events.
2. Anything with a Dark spot in it is BAD- Since we dont watch local football (Native only watch SA football though there’s enough white players playing also, So we the watch the English Premiership ONLY)There’s no Need for White South Africa to Support a Successful Black Organised WC Bid.
3. We dont want any WC tourist here as we want this Administration to fail so that we can bring back segregation but not as it was but we just wont give opportunities to the Africans & Coloureds.
4. Never mind about the Crime, We’re just exaggerating, but beware of our Demonstrations during WC 2010 if FIFA wont consider taking this WC to Australia OR somewhere else.
5. Could’nt SA been left out & Starve after the Natives took over.
6. Why, FIFA, WHY???
7. I was worried about Transformation policy & Affirmative Action – That my Housekeeper’s Child is Going to be a Boss to my Child(white) who went to SA’s Best Varsity
and now all Verwoed (my role model-who incepted segregation laws)had done for my future is going to be ruined.
8.Afrikaners lets unite, GOD gave us this Country as MADAM De KLERK said to FW De Klerk before She Ditched him for Releasing Nelson Mandela out of Prison.
9. I repeat Crime in South Africa is just pick pocketing and a minor drug incident there and then as compared to First World Countries, as if we were a 1st world country we would not have Crime @ all!!

So PEople, tell you what i’m white, but English and very excited about hosting 2010WC and will support the existing Administration and SA is still a much more better place to live in than it was when it was like the middle-east when us the whites were in power.
So whoever talks about Crime, Aids, Rape, or Whatever just know that they are White Afrikaners and not Normal Afrikaaners but the KKK ones!!!

my previous blog was mainly translating what NIC & Reality said on their blogs dissing SA!!
because there’s no one, i mean no one for a right cause that would not want a tournament of this magnitude to be witnessed on their Shores!!
The Issue is far deeper & sensitive than Crime!!
And if you dont come from the Ghetto then do go to the Ghetto
as there are Gangsters and men with Guns and Chainsores all over the world (Europe, America, Africa, Asia etc) But we all know this, just come you’ll be safe as the gangsters will also be sick due to FOOTBALL FEVER!!!
That 2010 month will be the Shortest in SA History and will be the Best thing to Happen for us and will end all the pre-1994 woes this country has endured!!!

To Fute***? Living in constant ignorance can´t have gotten you very far in life, and now you´re bitter. Listen, no one wants to hear YOUR story, all those words read to me and everyone who have taken part in reading your oral tirade will agree with me that SOUTH AFRICA TO SOUTHAFRICANS!!!! And if you do not want to partake in the beauty of what is SA today..than don´t, and just keep repeating the lying malicious mantras to yourself..cause no one´s listening. Adieu!

to ignorance whatever!!
I’m sure that you’re dumber than that blog uve just written!!
YOU CANT READ never mind about reading between the lines or maybe you’re one of the HATERS,
you know nothing about SA!!
So my advice is CANN-it, JACKASS!!
Maybe you should read that blog 3 times OR never mind and AM sure that ENGLISH is not your 1st nor 2nd language!!!

A reminder for all us designers that the people who choose (and offer suggestions on how to make them better) designs shouldn’t be the suits signing the cheques.

Can’t tell you how many times great designs end up being complete kak that you wouldn’t want printed on nappies after management gets their hand on them.

Hola South Africa,hola WCin africa. Iam responding to the critisim i found most people who say that thy are South Africans but they still have the apartheid minds.I no wonder why they are living in our country but they don’t like S A to host w c just like other any other equiped countries.I personally think that those people are Europeans in our home. The logo has nothing to do with crime,descrimination,it is the most challenging ever been especially for us African and wether they like it or not this time w c will be in africa, They will rather leave us by 2010 to their favourite countries or close their eyes and ears.

Stop, HATING!!!
We will HOST the WC2010, like it OR NOT!!
If tourists will be scared of getting robbed, they will still come and enjoy the WC, they cant wait 4 years not to come & support their countries!!
Yes there’s Crime in SA, but maily in those certain areas like everywhere else!!1
VIVA WCSA2010 VIVA!!!
The Boeremaak KKK is behind all the Crime!!!

South Africa has the third highest murder rate in the world according to the UN – just behind Columbia and Swaziland – with 51 murders and 151 rapes recorded daily, but don’t sweat it, I’m sure Charles Nqakula has got it covered.

AFRICA

Saturday, August 26, 2006 · Last updated 7:55 p.m. PT

South African murders hit scary rate

the last statistics available showed that between April 2004 and March 2005, 18,793 people were murdered in South Africa, an average of 51 a day in a nation of 47 million. There were 24,516 attempted murders, 55,114 reported rapes and 249,369 assaults with grievous injury.

By TERRY LEONARD
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

No thanks FIFA-not this fan.

[...] While the World Cup was hot and heavy not too long ago we posted several articles on the furor surrounding the logo itself. The World Cup may have ended with Italy the victor, but there will be another Cup in 4 years and that logo has now been unveiled to mixed reviews. Several good articles have been written hereand here. The second story gives you EVERY logo used by FIFA since 1966, the first time a logo was used. Fifa seems to be fairly consistent in its’ decisions at least. AdFreak has already posted a ‘rebuttal’ logo from those not happy with Fifa’s decision. Park, the russian agency that created the alternate, says, “FIFA World Cup is the most important sport event for the mankind. The championship is not only sports action. It’s a significant cultural event, a worldwide festival. Each country represents a wonderful performance. It is a performance where each player acts the important role. Someone’s artful as a snake or strong as an elephant, and someone embodies speed, power and stamina like leopard—the symbol of Southern Africa. This animal has inspired PARK to create a new identity of the FIFA World Cup 2010.” They even went so far as to show the logo “in action” with photos from the recently completed Cup here. What do you think? [...]

south african logo looks very nice, and any one can see, just by looking at the logo, that 2010 is not only about S.A, is also about africa.african countries should unite to make this prestigious event successful

I think that all this talk about crime in south africa is exegerated because these high crime figures are in isolated areas, every country and city has certain areas which are dangerous and if you are in these areas you will get mugged or raped or murderd etc but generally the country is safe. to prove my point when we were on holiday in austria in 2002 my brother was robbed of his cell phone by 2 austrians(white) who had knives another insident involved drug dealers who aproached him pretended to be having a chat with him they were exchanging drugs now this was the first time he experienced crime EVER AND IT WAS IN ONE OF THE WORLDS SAFEST COUNTRY so stop exegerating and if you want to address security you should have raised that issue with german world cup and all thier skin heads whose purpose is hurt and kill foreigners especially black people but this issue was ignored because of course if a black life is in danger who cares? My advise to all you visters don’t walk around in secluded areas at night and if your lost go to a petrol station because they have maps and know the area surrounding them pretty well.

Futebolblinger

twit

Lots of arguing going on.

Here’s the TRUTH:

http://www.crimexposouthafrica.org

End of discussion.

Nic, I’m also a South African. Yes, this is a scary place, especially if you end up in Hillbrow on a Saturday night because you got lost. But the main reason that bad things happen to people, is that they go out to the wrong places. If you go into a secluded place or a dark alley, you are going to get gang-raped & mugged. But the sollution is simple: JUST DON’T GO THERE!!! If you see someone skeefing you out, don’t throw him a finger, just smile & wave. The only real threat in SA is people coming into your home. Otherwise, if you just play it streetsmart & don’t go looking for trouble, you won’t find any. SA really is a great place, & I will never emigrate, no matter what. I like, no, I love it here!

All of the articles by TERRY LEONARD are non-sense they do not paint the real picture about South Africa, come to Mzanzi and experiance it for your self, not Bull$hit said by Terry

Shame on you jacky Maleka! Blood will be split in South Africa and it will be on your hands.

Crime IS bad. There is NO safe place in South Africa.
Yes go to South Africa and see for yourself. Hopefully you will only be raped and get Aids. Then you will know the truth. Most people (Black AND white) are just shot for no reason at all except hate.

Its not about poverty, its about hate.

How much is your life worth to you? Come to South Africa and find out.

World cup progress for 2010:

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,6119,2-7-1442_2010876,00.html

A British tourist was shot and killed in a hi-jacking today, in a major SA city Durban.

Yes there is crime and the media is always focusing on the negative things to up their sales, there is no newspaper that is focusing on the good real life stories because nobody is interested in them. YES i have been a victim of muggings twice and once i was nearly shot, but that does not block my view on the beautiful country south africa is, AMERICA is a sick country go and watch a documentary called LOOSE CHANGE – the truth about 911. i saw it but that does not make me believe that all americans are sick minded people. South Africa with a population of 47,390 900 only 5% = 2,369,545 have a serious criminal record and only 60% of these criminals are murderes, what does the remaining 95% do? What are the chances of you being raped, hi-jacked or just being victimised considering the population ratio? Yes if you go to violent areas and you try to be a SuperMAN or Hero you will be shot. Crime happens every where it depends on the level of Violent attacks. It’s just unfortunate that most of these crimes reported are just too violent and that raises Media bells, Brazil has the highest rate of mugging but they are not violent. PLEASE GIVE US A SLACK!!!!! There are many people in the country with good hearts including me.

Cry the beloved country. South Africa is finished. It is crazy to compare crime in South Africa to any other country in the world.

Only a fool will do that. In South Africa, most people are murdered for no reason at all other than hate. 97% of the time nothing is stolen from the victim. They are simply just executed (Blacks and whites).

I’m sick of all these idiots who try and compare South Africa to the rest of the world. Wake up! South Africa is burning.

For the love of all that is good in this world, please change the world cup venue to another country! Every day that I look at the south african news, there is murder, rape, hates crimes and genocide. Just look for yourself. The following website is the main news source in south africa. Its shocking to think fifa wants us to go to a place like that!

http://www.news24.co.za

PLEASE NOTE THAT I POST THIS FROM SUNNY SOUTH AFRICA (ie not New Zealand)

You people have got to be kidding.

Such opinions! And based on what you’ve read in the press! HALLO! Lets use a little discernment shall we?

With South Africa you cannot look at those stats for the country as a whole. Realistically South Africa consists of a 3rd world population and a 1st world population. Obviously the line between these two populations is blurred esp when it comes to crimes like hijackings and some rapes, but primarily the crime is confined to the 3rd world element of the population and the 1st world side remains largely unaffected. When the 1st world side IS affected it is made into a big news story and stats are spewed out making as if all 50 murders every day are happening to nice little housewives merrily trying to do their groceries. The reality is far from this. Whether fair or not, us whities are MOSTLY left untouched by crime. FACT.

Sadly poverty breeds crime.

I have lived here for 24 years. In those years I have never been a victim of violent crime. Not one family member has ever been a victim of violent crime. NOT ONE PERSON I KNOW HAS EVER BEEN A VICTIM OF VIOLENT CRIME. now you tell me that South Africa is burning??

Wake up people, yes, there is crime here, and everywhere else, but the media shows you one tiny fragment of reality and it’s the worst fragment!

I am SO priveleged to live in the most beautiful country there is.

JACKY – i back you girl – I have studied journalism and it is a fact that crime makes for a good read. People are sick and they love to read about it. Doesn’t mean it is the status quo!

SHAME ON YOU to shameonyou.
Even saying something like “hopefully you will only get raped and get AIDS” tells me you need a serious reality check. When you have a friend with HIV perhaps you won’t be so flippant. It’s abhorrent

I lost my brother to a hijacking in South Africa. They shot him in the back of his ear.

To hell with you Carolyn.

Criminals in South Africa do not kill to feed their families. They kill for the sake of killing. Get the truth here: http://www.crimexposouthafrica.org

Carolyn supports the murder of innocent people.

And…Carolyn said: “The reality is far from this. Whether fair or not, us whities are MOSTLY left untouched by crime. FACT.”

Please provide a reference to backup this “FACT”. Or is it just your opinion. I know MANY balck,Indian and White people that have been murdered in South Africa. You’re a ignorant fool.

My story follows:

“”I run a car rental business, and yesterday (Sunday) the Metro Police stopped one of my renters for a trivial matter. They threatened to take the guy to jail and impound the car etc.

I called the SAPS and asked them to get there, because i was convinced that they were going to illegally seize the vehicle. Once we informed the officer that we had called 10111 they said everything was OK and we could go.

I was still not completely comfortable (and the renter of the vehicle also commented that he thought they were trawling for bribes) so i asked the police officer that handled the case to give me her name and police number (MW Mojela 30054238). She asked me why i wanted it. I told that there may be some corruption involved and i would like to report it, so that it could be investigated.

She said that i can not call her corrupt, and that she will arrest me for calling her corrupt. I said that i have a right to report these types of things and that she can not arrest me because i want to complain. She refused to give me her name and number and continued to say that i would be arrested for saying that.

I eventually called 10111 again and asked their help, because quite literally a group of metro police officers were standing around and threatening to arrest me. The fact of the matter was that i was asked by a police officer why i wanted her name and force number, and i told her the honest truth. All the officers started to get quite aggressive, it was like they were a pack of animals with no logic or reasoning.

I actually wanted to just turn around and walk off at this point, but one of the police officers dropped his gun and the bullets came out, i don’t know why he was holding his gun, but I expect he was going to use it to threaten me as soon as i step out of line, or make the wrong move. I thought if i turn and walk now this animal is going to shoot me in the back.

I insisted that i wanted their names and identity, because it was my right. They refused flat.

Eventually a senior officer (G Sookane) arrived, and she calmed down the situation and asked me what I said. I explained to her that i was merely answering a question, and that i had the right to get the force numbers from the officers. She proceeded to force the officers to reveal their numbers which i wrote down. I also wrote down one of the officers ID numbers.

She then started to say that i would take her ID number and marry her to someone else or something like that. She insisted that i must cross out her ID number. I did this and then she grabbed the papers out of my hands. I promptly said that they had no right to snatch my papers out of my hand, and insisted that they give the papers back. I explained that they had illegally seized the documents, and that they should return them.

I tried to get them back, but the police (now there were about 10 officers on the scene) held me back and started to prevent me from getting the registration documents for my car back. I subsequently took out my i-mate and started to record the situation (i actually messed this up and ended up not recording the incident). A tall coloured officer then turned to me and said that he will arrest me for taking pictures. He then charged towards me and arrested me for taking pictures. How on earth can you arrest a person for taking pictures?

I was not told why i was being arrested, and i was not read any rights or communicated with in any way.

We got to the police station i was taken to a room where the officer (MW Mojela 30054238) made a statement, and i saw that i was actually arrested for defamation of character, resisting arrest, and interference. The entire charge was trumped up, and i have a witness that can verify my story.

While i was being charged at the station, another female officer walked up and was saying something in about “malungu” (white man. Then she walked up to me and said “you white people think you can just get away with this”. This was infront of her colleagues, which leads me to believe that this type of racism is widely accepted in the department. I memorised her face, i will never forget it.

Following this MJ Mojela and the Albino took me to a back room where they took my finger prints. The crazy thing is that there was no equipment there to do this. They just rolled the ink onto the desk and they then tried to take my finger prints. Basically they screwed it up so bad that there were just black marks on the paper.

Both the Albino and Mojela saw that the finger prints were not taken properly, and they just let it happen. What if i was a real criminal? This was sheer incompetence.

I was then taken to the lock-up where the officer promptly put me in touch with a lawyer who said that for R1,500, he could get me out on the day. It was really like the lock up inspector was a salesman for the lawyer.

Eventually they took my shoe laces and put me in a cell. About 30 minutes later they let me out and gave me summons to appear in court at 8:30 Monday (today) and they let me go. Just before i left the investigating officer said my finger prints were unreadable and he took another set. Finally a competent official, (Mathebula 04839508 tel 497 7335) doing his job properly.

I went to the court this morning, and the prosecutor came down and told me i could go home. This was only after the clerk of the court took me aside and said he would make sure the case would be thrown out. He then asked me for a discount on car rental. The prosecutor commented that this happens all the time. Whenever you talk back to Metro Police, they radio in, and then a group of them gang up and arrest the person for whatever they want.

I am pretty angry, because it seems that a person has no rights when it comes to the metro police. They think they are above the law and they are deliberately intimidating members of the public, and wasting the time of the judiciary.

If the prosecutor at the court is correct there must be a lot of people like me who have been arrested for trying to complain to the Metro Police. The other thing is that it seems that they deliberately target white people.

Another aspect of it is that they are truly incompetent, how can a police officer (Mojela 30054238) not know how to take finger prints?

The whole thing is crazy, these people are supposed to be protecting you, and then they do something like this. It is no wonder members of the public have little respect for the law.

“John | October 23rd, 2006 at 12:47 pm

For the love of all that is good in this world, please change the world cup venue to another country! Every day that I look at the south african news, there is murder, rape, hates crimes and genocide. Just look for yourself. The following website is the main news source in south africa. Its shocking to think fifa wants us to go to a place like that!”

Genocide?! Hold it mate. It’s not Nazi Germany here.

Do you even know what Genocide is?

One will find that the most unpatriotic South Africans are those who felt screwed over when Apartheid fell. My opinion as a white South African who actually loves this country. DONT LISTEN TO EX-PATS (people who have left SA) they tend to be the most cynical, unpatriotic people. Who whould no doubt love to see “South Africa burn” to justify their own decision to leave.

Here is a site for you all: http://www.sagoodnews.co.za/

The crime EXPO site was built by somebody who clearly wants to spread fear and negativity.

Here is a news item for you:

5000+ die as plane hits building. No that, wasn’t south africa. 5000+ people, one day. Even SA can’t boast murder stats that high. Think about that for a while.

Yes, the Soccer World Cup will take place in South Africa. The soccer version of the legendary “Rumble in the Jungle”…and a boon for South Africans, as it keeps our politicians in the world eye-view.

http://www.southafrica.to

Big mistake bringing the world cup to South Africa.

They won’t be ready by 2010. Bet ya on that.

I do not understand all the negativity from New Zealand. On that note, I am pretty sure that these posts are from one person (or at least just a few people) trying to make a point by adopting pseudonyms.

I am British, and am now living in South Africa by choice. I find the lifestyle infinitely superior here. The weather is the best I have ever experienced – including California – and the countries AVERAGE sunshine hours is more than 10% higher than Madrid (Europe’s sunniest city), higher than the sunniest capital city in Australia, and almost 30% higher than Malborough (New Zealand’s sunniest place). That’s not the particularly good areas, that’s the national AVERAGE.

Aside from that the people are so loving. YES there are the criminals but I do not see them, I see the average person on the street who greets me with a smile and joy – which is something I do not see in England.

People speak of ‘the economy tanking’ and ‘it’s impossible for a white person to make right in South Africa’. What NONSENSE! South Africa is developing rapidly – more so than any country I have ever seen except the UAE. I run a business and earn 4 times here what I did in the UK (yes, that’s even WITH the exchange rate) – and everything is vastly cheaper here. There is no comparison between my standard of living in the UK and here, and nowhere elsehave I found an equal to here (2nd best being shared by Australia and California).

The country is incredibly beautiful, the most beautiful country I have ever seen. It is also mostly safe contrary to popular opinion (yes avoid the dodgey areas, but I do that even when in the UK!).

I am confident that the 2010 games will be fantastic. I haul my foreign friends and family over here all the time – the worst that has ever happened to any of them was a camera being stollen (no physical harm at all) and none of my family have ever been the victim of violent crime. Most are so in love with South Africa that they are reluctant to leave – and many of my family members now live here too.

Viva South Africa! I am proud to live here.

The South African government is launching a massive bullshit campaign to confuse the issue before the world cup.

South Africa is run by criminal networks who manipulate the ANC government.
These crime networks are putting billions in their pockets and dont want anybody to rock the boat.
My beutifull country is sinking in the the s***hole of Africa.

I agree with Carolyn, crime in SA is grossly exaggerated. South Africa is my very favourite country and I believe 2010 will be fantastic.

How funny to read Ant’s post. I am also a Brit now living in South Africa! I have been for years now.

I am totally with Ant’s comments, the country is fantastic. I have never experienced violent crime, and neither has anyone in my family. So all the statements about ‘you will be raped and killed’ etc is CRAZY!

Like Ant I am also earning more money here than I did in the UK, and of course it is all about one third of the price. That means my living standard is WAY better here. And the country offers so much to do! The weather is stunning, as is the scenery! I read yesterday that Conde Nast Readers choice 2006 named South Africa most beautiful country on earth with a scenery rating of 97.8%. I so agree – it’s the most beautiful country I have ever been by miles and miles!

2010 will be great! I have no doubt. When has South Africa ever messed up a large scale event? Never. It is going to be wonderful.

Also PROUD to live in South Africa, and I plan to stay!

The plain and simple truth of the matter is that anyone and I don’t care who, that hides the fact that this country is falling apart deserves what is coming to them. It is because of you spineless librals that criminals roam free, I hope your chance to suffer comes soon, I say chance because it is only a matter of time. Those of you that say nothing has happend to you and your family or friends, that is absolute bloody nonsense! I refer to poor Lumka Oliphant whos cousin was raped, murdered and her freakin eyes gauged out, she is a black south african that has always trusted in her government, not anymore (Saturday star dec, 9 article). I say wake up and look at the country around you, we are dying here and you parasites are making it worse….so sad.

Jason

Please explain what you mean by ’spineless liberals’. Your statement seems to imply that you’re a right wing racist. What does being liberal in this instance have to do with the topic? Are you implying that liberals are responsible for crime?

FYI Jason, nothing violent has ever happened to me or any of my immediate relatives and friends, and it’s not nonsense. It’s the truth. I’m in fact doubtful at anyone who uses the words ‘Spinelles liberals’ to describe anybody. All that you’ve done is expose yourself and all the so called ‘Ex-pats’ who seem hellbent on convincing the world that south africa is worse off than it was during apartheid.

Guys, this country is beautiful, it’s people are beautiful. Find out for yourselves. Don’t listen to angry, rightwingers like jason.

Viva South Africa.

Hi Thabo, agreed – also no one in my family has ever been teh victim of violent crime. Have lived here most of my life and it’s safe, stunning, cheap and all our overseas relatives who visit love the place. I think 2010 SWC will be fantastic.

Carolyn and Ryan… the fact that you live in denial really concerns me. The reality and fact of the matter is that SA has a serious crime issue and it affects ALL races. No one disputes that it is a beautiful country and just because I currently live abroad does not make you a more patriotic South African than I! But I ask you this; should one have to live like a prisoner in one’s own home? Maybe you should live abroad and then you’ll realise how serious things are and that crime is not something one should have to put up with… who is the victim here? When you live in a country where crime is rife your senses deaden reality to allow you to cope. And if you don’t know anyone who has been affected by crime then you count your lucky stars because I know of close friends who have been gang raped, mugged, stabbed and killed! I would go back tomorrow, but my life is far more important than pride or patriotism.

My dear Ant…. you are obviously nothing like the average struggling South African. You clearly are doing very well out of our country; unfortunately not all of us have the luxury of owning our own business and earning 4x whatever it is you said you earned in the UK. Money is bliss…

I find the 2006 logo to be the best among all designs.

The Africa logo looks like an unbalanced player. I think they should change it especially when Africa seems to be shaky to host the competition.

Hey, when you wonder daily where your next meal is going to come from and you see some rich cocky tourist flashing really expensive things, I think it would make sense what would happen next. If you use common sense (by just doing whatever the mugger tells you) then they will almost always do no harm to you. Most of the time they only want to run off with money. Don’t do anything stupid.

Dam…was reading through this whole blog today…and it’s depressive, thought it was about the cup and it turns into a confession booth, truth is I feel for all the peeps here who’ve gone through hell in SA…dam even across oceans and continents you hear the ripple effect of crime in SA, I hope by 2010 the echo will be that of cheers and happiness from all the soccers fanatics in SA…

Not surprisingly the SA Government blames the crime spree in South Africa on racism.

Viewing the crime-situation in full prospective, the government seems to be the real culprit, and the actual racists, just look at today’s headlines in SA.

Review the crime-stats and you’ll be surprised;
4 x major cash heists (1 day),
Security personnel burnt to death
Paramedic shot dead
Girl 7 raped & murdered
The list goes on and on…
And is part of every day life in South Africa

I’m a Brit who lived many years in South Africa who would love to live there again (for now work has stationed me here again).

I agree with Simon, Tony etc – the country is great. I went on holiday there just last month and the place just goes from strength to strength, the development is amazing, people are happy, life is flourishing. All the negativity seems to be coming from people who’ve left SA with an axe to grind. I’m very confident for 2010, and I plan to be there cheering everything on!

Like several people who’ve posted here income was also higher for me in South Africa, and SA friends who came over to the UK and USA have been shocked that they do not earn much more in the so called ‘developed’ countries than back at home, even though the US and especially the UK are so much more expensive. I don’t think that’s an abnormal experience. As an accountant in the UK, earning is around £40 000 a year, whilst in SA I would easily take in R50 000 monthly (which works out higher even with exchange rate). Even starting accountants are earning R30 000 p/m (similar to or even more than here – and easily able to buy a higher living standard).

I’ve also not had anything happen crimewise to any friends or family (and I lived there 18 years). Once I had someone in a mall follow me because I had my camera prominently displayed – but in Europe such things are COMMON place too. I will admit that I feel safer walking the streets here, but I’m not a nervous wreck in SA which I would be if even 1/5th of the ‘war-zone’ propoganda was to be taken to heart. After all we can talk of the youth stabbing in London this week, the modern jack-the-ripper whose been targeting prostitutes, all the rapes in SE London etc – so if you want to paint an awful you can almost anywhere.

I am ALL FOR SA’s 2010 games! I think they’ll be brilliant and they could not be going to a more fantastic country!

I hope the World Cup will be a great event (I’m not a follower of football). To get away from the more contentious stuff, I know SA has a great climate(s) but as one who has studied weather for decades I question the accuracy of this: “…The weather is the best I have ever experienced – including California – and the countries AVERAGE sunshine hours is more than 10% higher than Madrid (Europe’s sunniest city), higher than the sunniest capital city in Australia, and almost 30% higher than Malborough (New Zealand’s sunniest place). That’s not the particularly good areas, that’s the national AVERAGE.”

Perth at its current met. site averages 8.8 hrs sun/day (about 3220/year). 30% more than Blenheim in Marlborough (2450) would be about 3185/year. I would like to see any official data that establishes that SA gets this much per year as a national average.

Yuma, Arizona is widely reported as getting 4055 hr/year, and Redding in California, with 88% of the possible wouldn’t be far behind that.

Actually posted from New Zealand.

Interesting to stumble across this site. I am by no means a meteorologist, but I do love the South African Weather. I was lucky enough to live there for a few years and studied a Master’s degree whilst there. I live in Oxford UK, which is fantastic for other things but the weather is not one of them! It’s overcast here now but thankfully it is not raining and nor has it for a few weeks actually.

I lived in California very briefly and in Australia for just a few months and if I have to chose I did find South Africa’s the nicest climate. That’s very subjective though and all of them are so much better than the UK that it seems like arguing like against like.

I don’t know much about the sunshine hours, but I do remember being told when in South Africa that the national average over a year is 8.5 per day. That should amount to a bit over 3100 hours per year. That is nearly, but not quite, as high as the average suggested in the post above.

The local source I dragged up was the BBC weather database and it lists at least some of the South African cities (http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/weather/search/new_search.pl?search_query=south+africa&go.x=0&go.y=0). The 6 mentioned average about 8.4 hours between them year round. Having said that, I see that three of the cities mentioned are on the coast and they drag the average down considerably. If you only count the three cities in the interior the average is more than 9 hours per day. I imagine that is more representative of the nation as whole because the vast majority of South Africa is on that tall inland Plateau of 3000-6000 feet. None of the desert and semi-desert cities are being considered there at all. They BBC also lists Perth (http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/city_guides/results.shtml?tt=TT003050) but the statistics given there only average Perth out at 7.8 hours annually. Of the Australian capital cities, Darwin fares the best with 8.42 hours. Madrid does appear the sunniest in Europe, not that I have checked every European city, and averages 7.75 hours. So at least according to the BBC weather website the statistics quoted above are at least roughly accurate, if somewhat inflated.

I cannot vouch for the reliability of the BBC weather division, Lord knows it’s often wrong when it comes to rain here! However I am certainly no meteorologist, only a bored person who had an hour to waste surfing the net on a Sunday afternoon.

On a more relevant note I love South Africa and am confident that the world cup planned for 2010 will be a success. I do plan to be in the country for at least some of it, which hopefully shows that I harbour no hard feelings for our recent cricket clash. Though Australia will probably beat you guys anyway (I’d far rather New Zealand or Sri Lanka win though).

I visited South Africa recently and was amazed at how much development there is everywhere and how many new buildings and improvements are being done! Also as a European I was surprised to see how modern it already is. I had in mind a much more primitive idea. In fact it is sophisticated and has excellent infrastructure. I liked the people and was completely amazed by the country’s beauty and I wish to return again. 2010 cup might be a wonderful excuse.

It will be a shambles…half the money set aside will be creamed off by the officials, as is the norm in Africa and the whole country will be in chaos trying to host an event of this size.
There will be barely enough hotel rooms to accomodate FIFA and the World’s press, let alone the fans and crime will be rampant thanks to South Africa’s useless police sevice and non existent law and order.
I’m English by the way…and yes i have been to South Africa. Beautiful country, but that’s not enough.

I am a proud South African. But in terms of the 2010 World Cup – I think we should give it to England or Australia to host. Because we are going to mess up.
Our government is corrupt, you can bride your way out of anything here. The police are completely useless and the crime is rampant. And its not petty crime.
Our government cannot even arrange public transport and leaves it in the hands of the private sector, and thats why we have such lawlessness and carnage on our roads. Mini taxi do what they like on the roads here with no threat of the police doing a thing to them. Law abiding citizens like myself arethen just fined for speeding and talking on your cell phone. Whislt absolutley no policing takes place.
The government – even our useless weak President and minister of security say there is no crime problem. The are blinded by corruption and hatred.

Come to South Africa and even the 2010 World Cup – but be warned you will not have a good time, and some of you will never leave.

Harsh words, but unfortunately – this is the reality here.

It surprises me to hear things like the two above because I have been travelling to South Africa for years and never experienced anything vaguely like that.

I have conducted a few tours there and have found organisation there to be, generally of course, outstanding. Far better than, for instance, a lot of mad Italian bureaucracy.

I am very optimistic about it and was jubilant when I heard that South Africa won the bid. I know a lot of South Africans here in UK and I know many are very bitter and disenchanted, but I really do not understand why. Every time I have been to the country it has been fantastic. I have also conducted enough business there to know that it is efficient and bribery certainly NOT a norm. Moreover, none of my ex-pat British friends have moved back from South Africa post-apartheid and I think that says a lot. Their lifestyle is clearly better than it would be here and they wouldn’t trade it lightly. I have even toyed with the idea of moving there permanently myself and may very well do so in the next few years.

See you in 2010 at what I think will be the most exciting games so far!

Wow! It’s remarkable how pessimistic the world is! For God’s sake! Name a country in this world who hasn’t had their fair share of strife – I challenge you. America (allegedly the greatest country on Earth) wages war on the Middle East, China (the next super-power) who’s people’s living conditions are crimes against humanity, any European country – riddled with a history of war, genocide and crime. Wherever you are in the world, before you have the audacity to judge a country who has only fairly recently overcome one of the greatest injustices (Apartheid) the world has ever seen, think where your country has been. Not always a bed of roses was it…

I lived in SA for almost 30 long years and thank God for every day I now spend working and living in Western Europe.
People who visit SA on holiday have NO idea how it is to live there with constant crime, corruption, violence.
People who have to live in SA

I shudder to think what a mess those awful people will make of such a great tournament.
Lets keep the WC in a decent Country for everyones sake.

I live several months each year in the UK and several months in South Africa because of work commitments.

Though I am British, I prefer South Africa and really think people who are worrying about the world cup are horribly misinformed about what the country is like. It’s fantastic and I am quite sure the cup will be brilliant.

I’m also not saying it lightly – I’ve been in and out of South Africa for over twenty years and hopefully will move there fully once work allows it.

Anyhow, that’s my sixpence. peace.

Nonsense, it will be a shambles!

Viva South Africa and its beautiful climate, people and scenery!
I hope all the visitors to our wonderful country encounter positive South Africans who are trying to make a constructive effort to solve some of the problems that SA faces… and not some of the whinging, pessimistic and venomous people who seem to hang around on these blogs. Like ANY country it has problems that are going to take time to solve but it’s well worth the visit! Welcome!

I think South Africa will do a great job, it’s one of my favourite countries and I am really keen for 2010! It’ll be fantastic.

Africa will continue to be the laughing stock of the World!

These foreign soccer supporters are going to come here like lambs to the slaughter! But let them. I want them to experience first hand what us South Africans have to contend with on a daily basis. Say what you like, this government is useless. It’s time people were honest enough to admit that this glorious rainbow nation is a dismal failure!

Negative comments are very valid, how Blatte could have allocated the games to the communist ruled SA is beyond me, yes lived 40 years in SA thus we know the situation, everything the comrades handle is a disaster, how else can it be if the place is run by semi educated commies & criminals & other assorted shady characters.
Reasons to make the following statement are to numerous but would advise all sportlovers to refrain from visiting this gangster paredise & follow progress from the safe comfort of your home
Would advise anyone reading this to advise their friends NOT to visit the RSA, & thereby endangering their well being also visits to SA are seen by the red government clique as approval of their policy of farm murders & the glorification of murderers of innocents

Some of the comments above obviously reflect a biased view point. There some things that should be noted. Almost everyone South Africa has either close friends or family that have been victims of violent crime. It is possible to avoid being the victim of crime here but it takes effort and an acute awareness of the situation in the country. I would not advise any foreigner to come to South Africa unless he/she has a local guide and sticks to the safer areas of the country.

If you do decide to visit during the world cup stick to your hotel. Do not go out at night to party, rather have your session at your hotel. Do not tour the cities on foot. Get a reliable local to take you around.

If you cannot arrange this stay at home and watch the progress of the tournament from a safe distance.

I find the negative comments written on this page very surprising.
Yet what is not surprising is that they are written by ex-pats who hit and run when our country went through some hard times. Yes we still have problems! which country doesn’t!? but its a time of optimism and I for one am very proud to see how far OUR country has come post 1994.

Everywhere I go there is development being done and people talking about our excellent work so far. If i remember correctly Wembley stadium,built in the heart of LONDON was completed way over schedule and budget barely in-time for the FA CUP FINAL! And this is in your NEW 1ST WORLD country.
All I’m hearing is CRIME CRIME CRIME! but pls look at the facts, do some research and see the stadia we are building. the infrastructure we have updated and our positive attitudes!

Germany’s target of revenue for Fifa was $2.8billion which the achieved at the end of their world cup. Ours is $3.2billion and we ALREADY have that.
need I say more!

Please if South Africa was not capable of hosting an excellent World Cup or is in danger of not meeting Fifa requirements they wouldn’t have awarded it to us.

I’m sorry to say some comments above are very stupid. It’s shame to hear people like Jammie and Bill talking so negetively about our ability to host a safe World Cup Tournament considering how brilliant they sound. A word of advise to thee intelectuals-NOTHING WILL CHANGE, WE WILL HOST THE 2010 TOURNAMENT IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES, YOU WILL WATCH US RISE TO THE OCCASSION AND WE WON’T MISS YOU AT ALL. May God keep you safe till 2010 so as for you to witness the success of our beloved country.

Just an update on the “negative” comments. Yesterday (27th November 2007) a family was followed home after returning from church in Erasmia near Pretoria. The father and uncle were shot and are in hospital in a critical condition. The son and son-in-law were killed instantly. Did this even make front page news? No! because violent crime is not news in South Africa. It is normal.

By the way I am not an expat. I do not intend leaving South Africa. Pretending that crime in South Africa is not a pandemic and not on the scale of a genocide will not help to stop it.

Taking the world cup away from South Africa may just spur the politicians on to actually address the problem.

People, there is no country without crime,gangsters and violence!! Lets give SA a chance, it’s going to be the first country to hold a world football tournament in AFRICA. All you negative SA’S YOU SUCK.

There is no place like OUR MADIBA’S HOMELAND…..THE CRIME WE ARE ENDURING NOW CAN’T BE WORSE THAN APARTHEID…. I LOVED THIS COUNTRY WHILE I WAS IN THE WORSE OPPRESSIONS AND I LOVE IT NOW…
SOUTH AFRICA WILL HOST THIS WORLD CUP LIKE WE HOSTED OURSELVED FROM APARTHEID….
I LOVE AFRICA….
and by the way crime in this land is a product of apartheid, if anyone wants to blame someone they must go back to the PW Botha’s…

All those who have a problem with South Africa they must just stay away and shut-up… U dont hear American’s lambasting their corrupt country. Please we tired of people looking at our government as the worse thing that has ever happened to this world… We never oppressed anyone or call for any war…
How could we be worse… PLZ NOW lets move on and celebrate with Africa as they are hosting this beautiful game…
To those who are behind us … THANX we’ll remember you when we are in paradise …

i posted this @ 1:11 pm not 6:10 am as writen above…

Wounded Nation

AFTER bathing in the warm, fuzzy glow of the Mandela years, South Africans today are a deeply demoralized people. The lights are going out in homes, mines, factories and shopping malls as the national power authority, Eskom – suffering from mismanagement, lack of foresight, a failure to maintain power stations and a flight of skilled engineers to other countries – implements rolling power cuts that plunge towns and cities into daily chaos.

Major industrial projects are on hold. The only healthy enterprise now worth being involved in is the sale of small diesel generators to powerless households but even this business has run out of supplies and spare parts from China.

The currency, the rand, has entered freefall. Crime, much of it gratuitously violent, is rampant, and the national police chief faces trial for corruption and defeating the ends of justice as a result of his alleged deals with a local mafia kingpin and dealer in hard drugs.

Newly elected African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma, the state president-in-waiting, narrowly escaped being jailed for raping an HIV-positive woman last year, and faces trial later this year for soliciting and accepting bribes in connection with South Africa’s shady multi-billion-pound arms deal with British, German and French weapons manufacturers.

One local newspaper columnist suggests that Zuma has done for South Africa’s international image what Borat has done for Kazakhstan. ANC leaders in 2008 still speak in the spiritually dead jargon they learned in exile in pre-1989 Moscow, East Berlin and Sofia while promiscuously embracing capitalist icons – Mercedes 4×4s, Hugo Boss suits, Bruno Magli shoes and Louis Vuitton bags which they swing, packed with money passed to them under countless tables – as they wing their way to their houses in the south of France.

It all adds up to a hydra-headed crisis of huge proportions – a perfect storm as the Rainbow Nation slides off the end of the rainbow and descends in the direction of the massed ranks of failed African states. Eskom has warned foreign investors with millions to sink into big industrial and mining projects: we don’t want you here until at least 2013, when new power stations will be built.

In the first month of this year, the rand fell 12% against the world’s major currencies and foreign investors sold off more than £600 million worth of South African stocks, the biggest sell-off for more than seven years.

“There will be further outflows this month, because there won’t be any news that will convince investors the local growth picture is going to change for the better,” said Rudi van de Merwe, a fund manager at South Africa’s Standard Bank.

Commenting on the massive power cuts, Trevor Gaunt, professor of electrical engineering at the University of Cape Town, who warned the government eight years ago of the impending crisis, said: “The damage is huge, and now South Africa looks just like the rest of Africa. Maybe it will take 20 years to recover.”

The power cuts have hit the country’s platinum, gold, manganese and high-quality export coal mines particularly hard, with no production on some days and only 40% to 60% on others.

“The shutdown of the mining industry is an extraordinary, unprecedented event,” said Anton Eberhard, a leading energy expert and professor of business studies at the University of Cape Town. “That’s a powerful message, massively damaging to South Africa’s reputation for new investment. Our country was built on the mines.”

To examine how the country, widely hailed as Africa’s last best chance, arrived at this parlous state, the particular troubles engulfing the Scorpions (the popular name of the National Prosecuting Authority) offers a useful starting point. The elite unit, modelled on America’s FBI and operating in close co-operation with Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), is one of the big successes of post-apartheid South Africa. An independent institution, separate from the slipshod South African Police Service, the Scorpions enjoy massive public support.

The unit’s edict is to focus on people “who commit and profit from organized crime”, and it has been hugely successful in carrying out its mandate. It has pursued and pinned down thousands of high-profile and complex networks of national and international corporate and public fraudsters.

Drug kingpins, smugglers and racketeers have felt the Scorpions’ sting. A major gang that smuggle platinum, South Africa’s biggest foreign exchange earner, to a corrupt English smelting plant has been bust as the result of a huge joint operation between the SFO and the Scorpions. But the Scorpions, whose top men were trained by Scotland Yard, have been too successful for their own good.

The ANC government never anticipated the crack crime busters would take their constitutional independence seriously and investigate the top ranks of the former liberation movement itself.

The Scorpions have probed into, and successfully prosecuted, ANC MPs who falsified their parliamentary expenses. They secured a jail sentence for the ANC’s chief whip, who took bribes from the German weapons manufacturer that sold frigates and submarines to the South African Defence Force. They sent to jail for 15 years a businessman who paid hundreds of bribes to then state vice-president Jacob Zuma in connection with the arms deal. Zuma was found by the judge to have a corrupt relationship with the businessman, and now the Scorpions have charged Zuma himself with fraud, corruption, tax evasion, racketeering and defeating the ends of justice. His trial will begin in August.

The Scorpions last month charged Jackie Selebi, the national police chief, a close friend of state president Thabo Mbeki, with corruption and defeating the ends of justice. Commissioner Selebi, who infamously called a white police sergeant a “f***ing chimpanzee” when she failed to recognize him during an unannounced visit to her Pretoria station, has stepped down pending his trial.

But now both wings of the venomously divided ANC – ANC-Mbeki and ANC-Zuma – want the Scorpions crushed, ideally by June this year. The message this will send to the outside world is that South Africa’s rulers want only certain categories of crime investigated, while leaving government ministers and other politicians free to stuff their already heavily lined pockets.

No good reason for emasculating the Scorpions has been put forward. “That’s because there isn’t one,” said Peter Bruce, editor of the influential Business Day, South Africa’s equivalent of, and part-owned by, The Financial Times, in his weekly column. “The Scorpions are being killed off because they investigate too much corruption that involves ANC leaders. It is as simple and ugly as that,” he added.

The demise of the Scorpions can only exacerbate South Africa’s out-of-control crime situation, ranked for its scale and violence only behind Colombia. Everyone has friends and acquaintances who have had guns held to their heads by gangsters, who also blow up ATM machines and hijack security trucks, sawing off their roofs to get at the cash.

In the past few days my next-door neighbour, John Matshikiza, a distinguished actor who trained at the Royal Shakespeare Company and is the son of the composer of the South African musical King Kong, had been violently attacked, and friends visiting from Zimbabwe had their car stolen outside my front window in broad daylight.

My friends flew home to Zimbabwe without their car and the tinned food supplies they had bought to help withstand their country’s dire political and food crisis and 27,000% inflation.

Matshikiza, a former member of the Glasgow Citizens Theatre company, was held up by three gunmen as he drove his car into his garage late at night. He gave them his car keys, wallet, cellphone and luxury watch and begged them not to harm his partner, who was inside the house. As one gunman drove the car away, the other two beat Matshikiza unconscious with broken bottles, and now his head is so comprehensively stitched that it looks like a map of the London Underground.

These assaults were personal, but mild compared with much commonplace crime.

Last week, for example, 18-year-old Razelle Botha, who passed all her A-levels with marks of more than 90% and was about to train as a doctor, returned home with her father, Professor Willem Botha, founder of the geophysics department at the University of Pretoria, from buying pizzas for the family. Inside the house, armed gunmen confronted them. They shot Professor Botha in the leg and pumped bullets into Razelle.

One severed her spine. Now she is fighting for her life and will never walk again, and may never become a doctor. The gunmen stole a laptop computer and a camera.

Feeding the perfect storm are the two centres of ANC power in the country at the moment. On the one hand, there is the ANC in parliament, led by President Mbeki, who last Friday gave a state-of-the-nation address and apologized to the country for the power crisis.

Mbeki made only the briefest of mentions of the national Aids crisis, with more than six million people HIV-positive. He did not address the Scorpions crisis. The collapsing public hospital system, under his eccentric health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, an alcoholic who recently jumped the public queue for a liver transplant, received no attention. And the name Jacob Zuma did not pass his lips.

Last December Mbeki and Zuma stood against each other for the leadership of the ANC at the party’s five-yearly electoral congress. Mbeki, who cannot stand again as state president beyond next year’s parliamentary and presidential elections, hoped to remain the power behind the throne of a new state president of his choosing.

Zuma, a Zulu populist with some 20 children by various wives and mistresses, hoped to prove that last year’s rape case, and the trial he faces this year for corruption and other charges, were part of a plot by Mbeki to use state institutions to discredit him. Mbeki assumed that the notion of Zuma assuming next year the mantle worn by Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s first black state president would be so appalling to delegates, a deeply sad and precipitous decline, that his own re-election as ANC leader was a shoo-in.

But Mbeki completely miscalculated his own unpopularity – his perceived arrogance, failure to solve health and crime problems, his failure to deliver to the poor – and he lost. Now Zuma insists that he is the leader of the country and ANC MPs in parliament must take its orders from him, while Mbeki soldiers on until next year as state president, ordering MPs to toe his line.

Greatly understated, it is a mess. Its scale will be dramatically illustrated if South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 World Cup is withdrawn by Fifa, the world football body.

Already South African premier league football evening games are being played after midnight because power for floodlights cannot be guaranteed before that time. Justice Malala, one of the country’s top newspaper columnists, has called on Fifa to end the agony quickly.

“I don’t want South Africa to host the football World Cup because there is no culture of responsibility in this country,” he wrote in Johannesburg’s best-selling Sunday Times.

“The most outrageous behaviour and incompetence is glossed over. No-one is fired. I have had enough of this nonsense, of keeping quiet and ignoring the fact that the train is about to run us over.

“It is increasingly clear that our leaders are incapable of making a success of it. Scrap the thing and give it to Australia, Germany or whoever will spare us the ignominy of watching things fall apart here – football tourists being held up and shot, the lights going out, while our politicians tell us everything is all right.”

Saturday 9th February 2008

As a “previously advantaged” early 40’s white male in SA, I am hoping and praying that sanity will prevail in the New South Africa. We have one of the most beautiful countries in the world with fantastic potential, however the trend of most African countries to take what is fixed and break it is a reality that intelligent and educated South Africans (of all races) are beginning to realize. Previous generations have made the bed that we are now lying in and I’m afraid that the future does not look very promising. Through shear desperation, the uneducated, brainwashed, breeding masses are bound to drag us all down sooner or later. As with almost every other skilled person I know (of all colours), I just wonder when we will have to abandon ship and swim to the nearest 1st world haven of sanity. Africa is more and more becoming a pathetic continent, standing with it’s hands out begging instead of getting off their rear ends and helping themselves. How will we progress with a culture like this? What a shame, what a crying shame. God help us all. Viva SA, Viva!