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ZIWAPHI • VOL 4 NO 15 • 9-22 July 2010 

NELSPRUIT

The 2010 Soccer World Cup organizing Committee in the province and the Mbombela Municipality is dispatching mini-buses to black townships and running to black media to get spectators to watch the remaining games at the FIFA Fan-fest in Nelspruit.

“Following the exit of Bafana-Bafana from the tournament, visitor numbers dropped dismally. Such was attributed to a number of facts including but not limited to transport arrangement and as a result, the host city with its statutes herein offer free transport within the Mbombela Municipality,” said FIFA 2010 World Cup Communications and Marketing manager, Ronny Moyo.

According to Moyo, the free rides to the Fan-fest came to effect as from last week Friday and will run until Sunday, 11 May, when the final game between Holland and Spain is played.

“This service is being provided by a fleet of mini-bus taxis and buses marked with Yellow FIFA Fan-fest branding. The transport service to the Fan-fest starts at 11:30 at various pick up points with regular services throughout the day to and from Nelspruit,” he said.

These free rides are, however available to those who reside within the Mbombela jurisdiction, which means people who stay as far as Nkomazi and Mjindi municipalities will lose out.

The Municipality’s move to offer free transportation to the Fan-fest comes shortly after a poor attendance by soccer lovers in the province.

The poor attendance also had a huge negative impact, especially on the business side of things as vendors complained that they were promised a huge turn-out of supporters throughout the tournament, after paying a lump sum of R20 000 each just to be eligible to sell at the Fan-fest.

The Mbombela 2010 Office privatised the management and marketing of the Fan Fest to a Johannesburg based company, Sefako.

Moyo said that the Johannesburg based company got the contract because its proposal was better than Mpumalanga companies.

Notwithstanding the fact that the biggest supporters of soccer in South Africa are black people, Sefako marketed the Fan Fest exclusively to white audiences by placing advertisements only in white owned media and snubbed the black media.

When more and more people stayed away from the Fan Fest, Moyo sent a desperate media release to the black-owned media to publicise the Fan Fest.

In the media release, Moyo failed to acknowledge  Sefako’s failure to market the event, but dispatched mini-buses and buses to black townships to hide the embarrassment, but many of these ran empty as there was no mobilisation of the communities.

Observers, however, say the transport intervention was not an act of foolishness by Moyo, but a deliberate ploy to give more business to a transport company that was hastily established to accredit and control the provision of transport for the World Cup in Mbombela.

Moyo refused to answer questions about Sefako’s appointment and referred all enquiries to Mbombela 2010 Co-ordinator Differ Mogale.

At the time of going to press, Mogale was unavailable for comment.

The finals, Match 64, of the World Cup will be played on Sunday at Soccer City Stadium in Soweto between Spain and Holland.

Match 63 for the third place will be played at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium at Port Elizabeth between Uruguay and Germany tomorrow.