Farenheit 2010: The inconvenient truth behind SA's new world cup stadiums

Craig Tanner's documentary Farenheit 2010 interrogates the needless expenditure behind South Africa's brand-new stadiums, and argues that the 2010 FIFA World Cup could have (and should have) been staged in the venues that were in existence when we won the bid. Do our own broadcasters care? Not really.

By Kevin Bloom

15 Jun 2010

[Five] days into what's easily the most inclusive sports metaphor on Earth - this football event into which a large chunk of humanity puts its energies, hopes and fears - and we can already say that South Africa has pulled it off.

Never mind the matches running on time or the lack of serious incident, more important is that the country has taken the break from itself it so desperately needed. The class and race divisions that only two months ago were dominating our national psyche have been forgotten, and we're now collectively telling ourselves (and the world) that there's more keeping us together than has been keeping us apart. We're having a fat jol, and we're being loved and appreciated for it.

So we don't want to be reminded, once again, about the things that are wrong with the 2010 Fifa World Cup. And we especially don't want to be reminded by a white South African who lives in Australia.

Continue reading the full story, and view a trailer of the documentary Farenheit 2010, at www.thedailymaverick.co.za.

About Kevin Bloom

Kevin Bloom, associate editor of www.thedailymaverick.co.za, is an award-winning journalist, editor and author who has written for a wide array of South African and international publications. In his magazine career, he was the founding editor of The Media, editor-at-large of Maverick and joint editor of Empire. Email him at az.oc.kcirevamyliadeht@nivek.