It is as if South Africa, and by extension the whole of Africa, had to work extra hard to convince everyone that the World Cup could be successfully hosted in the continent. FIFA, the world football governing body has never had problems with South Africa's ability to host the competition but the pessimism persists. We have no problem with scrutinising the capacity of any country to host such a big event, but we believe that the current pessimism is misplaced.

seems it is motivated by a pervasive negative mentality about Africa among many Western media and citizens. This is sometimes called Afro-pessimism. It is the deep-rooted belief that Africa does not possess the necessary capacity to perform on the international scale. Some could call it a form of racism but we believe it comes from a deep but misguided mistrust of anything that is African.

Recently, South African Finance Minister, Trevor Manuel released a budget to address the financial requirements of hosting the World Cup. We believe South Africa is more than capable of hosting the World Cup in 2010. We think that unfounded allegations and doubts about South Africa should be rejected by all supporters of football and sport.

FIFA has rightly come out and dismissed the doubts. The years of Western monopoly on the hosting of major world events should come to an end. Football is a great sport and it has billions of supporters across the globe many of them in the Third World.

Bringing such a competition to countries in the Third World in general and Africa in particular is very important. The World Cup is truly on its way to South Africa. We urge everyone to work towards making 2010 a truly African experience.

Today's Thought

No one will improve your lot if you do not yourself.

- Bertolt Brecht