World Cup coverage: stampeding South Africa

The media always likes a chance to criticise South Africa and as the host of the 2010 World Cup, it’s hardly surprising that it’s holding South Africa hostage. Infrastructure, crime rates and security are all under scrutiny by those trying to make headlines.

All sorts of dramas are being played out in the papers, much of it hyped up to the max. Sunday’s stampede after the friendly warm-up match between North Korea and Nigeria was obviously unfortunate, just as any over-crowded event where people end up dead.

But it should not by any means be a catalyst to assume chaos once the World Cup kicks off on Friday, which Monday’s MediaGuardian makes clear. Obviously papers like the Daily Mail reckon the stampede was a bad omen and will worry FIFA “which has resisted claims that South Africa does not have the infrastructure and organisation to stage the tournament.”

But then hype and drama about SA is never all that surprising. One of my friend’s first reactions to the news that I was moving to Johannesburg was sheer horror: we would have to drive cars with flame throwers (which we never did because we never needed them and they are actually illegal there!)

A comment posted in January on the BBC News Have Your Say site said “We Africans are the main cause of our bad press.” Or is actually the Western media that perpetuates the negative perception of Africa?

Either way, the World Cup coverage – and tone of the reports focused on SA as a country – will clearly have a lasting impression on the fans watching and reading about it from this end. Whatever England’s result!

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