After the final whistle

We have been asked by a range of organisations, think-tanks and academic institutions to comment on what we should do as a country to sustain the momentum of our FIFA 2010 remarkable success "after the final whistle has blown". In this newsletter, CEO of SA - The Good News, Steuart Pennington, shares his thoughts.

Words of Caution
We must retain the perspective that FIFA 2010 is an "event" in which we, as a country, have excelled. But since 1994 we have staged more than 147 international sporting events with similar success, just not on the same scale. We have done this before.

We must recognise that this particular success has resulted in a sense of national unity and pride that is unprecedented. In addition the global community, probably for the first time, has both an experiential and an informed view of our country.

The global media have had to eat their words. If anything they will respond by seeking out opportunities to vindicate their prophecies of doom and gloom. They are unlikely to lavish us with ongoing praise.

That we have learnt a number of invaluable lessons is indisputable, but it would be unwise to think that as a result of our FIFA 2010 success we have discovered new truths about our country which will enable us to deal with many of our underlying structural challenges such as education and health in a new way. If anything, our considerable success has reinforced existing positive truths that the doubters have been nay-saying for the past 14 years. But these doubting Thomases, here and abroad, remain ignorant and cynical of the wider truths of our country. We would go as far as to say that they still don’t understand or comprehend them.

It is upon this challenge which we must build. Ensuring that the truth of our country is understood here and abroad.

Therefore, we must NOT:

• Use this success to have a go at politicians; the "Danny Jordaan for President" syndrome;
• Use this "event" success to think that we can adopt a similar approach to some of our structural challenges, health, education etc. expecting similar results;
• Try to maintain the existing social momentum. "Events" result in euphoria and disappointment – one-off highs and lows. Trends, if positive, produce long term confidence and if, negative deep seated anxieties;
• Think that we must move onto the next "big thing". Life will, and needs to, get back to normal;
• Shoot from the hip by becoming baffled by our own euphoria and thinking that we are now in a position to change South Africa and the world;

What we must do:

• Compile accurate statistics on all the issues that have surrounded this event, such as attendance at games, number of tourism visits, the tourism spend, the tourism accommodation profile, the success of the special courts, the security incidents, the transport issues and the like.  There will be much that we can learn for the future;
• Measure the impact of this event on our global brand equity.  Answering the question "Has South Africa and Africa’s branding improved, and what are the lessons learned?";
• Measure the impact of this event on Africa, particularly in respect of relations between South Africa and the rest of Africa;
• Understand the legacy expectations and our ability to deliver on them in respect of Africa;
• Examine the lessons learned, and build on them
• Hold FIFA and the teams that visited to their legacy project undertakings;

We should recognise that:

• The conventional wisdoms, the generalisations and the cynicism in this country in respect of our future will not disappear with this success (just listen to the current talk shows – the cynicism is back!). Only 6 months ago a survey revealed that 80% of our youth were planning to leave South Africa because of a lack of confidence in its future; lack of job opportunities, education, BEE, security, xenophobia and Affirmative Action were given as the reasons. These perceptions will not suddenly disappear;
• That many of our developmental challenges continue to require long term structural changes which are now not "suddenly" possible because of our success in organising the FIFA World Cup;
• That we have been distracted from many of our underlying challenges; unemployment, poverty, health, education, racial issues and crime by this event;
• That much of the truth of SA still evades the media, our newly found global fans and the reading public.

Therefore, our recommendations in terms of what we should be doing to maintain the momentum are as follows:

• Focus on a campaign of teaching our citizenry and the global community the truth about South Africa with a specific intention of instilling confidence in its future;
• Develop a specific campaign around mobilising civil society towards building a safer South Africa;
• Focus on youth development and opportunity;
• Implement a schools campaign to build an understanding of our truths for both teachers and learners so that they develop an informed perspective of our future
• Focus on good citizenship, www.forgood.co.za is an example of this;

Our challenge is to translate the success of this event into long term sustainable initiatives that build the same kind of confidence that we have right now.

Our challenge remains real confidence in the future of South Africa.

by Steuart Pennington of www.sagoodnews.co.za

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