The problem with South Africa

After reading a column in the Toronto Star today about crime in Johannesburg as it gets set to host the FIFA World Cup, an interesting paradox occurred to me: since big ticket events like the Olympic Games or the World Cup are awarded to host cities/countries years in advance - in the case of South Africa, a decade - based on current data and projected future outlooks, what happens if a host fails to clean up its act? Being named the host venue for an event of this stature is never without conditions. There is always a list of "you have to do this, this, and this, and fix that, that, that." But honestly, are those conditions really enforceable?

When South Africa was awarded the World Cup in 2000, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime had ranked the country second in assaults and murders per capita in the world and first for rapes. Apparently, that wasn't enough to scare off the FIFA selection committe. After all, they were up against Morocco and Egypt, not traditionally countries of high esteem when it comes to peace and security.

Fast-forward to 2010 and things haven't really improved. Today, South Africa is ranked second in murder only to Columbia, a country engaged in an undeclared civil war. There are 50 murders each day in the country, 18,000 per year on average. In addition, South Africa is ranked number one in the world for carjackings, an especially troubling statistic for a country about to host hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world. Indeed, not much has changed since hosting duties were first awarded. Should we not find that troubling?

When Vancouver hosted the Olympic Winter Games this year, there was a great deal of negative press and controversy surrounding the poor weather, dangerously-challenging courses, and faulty ceremonies. They were big stories then, but taking the magnitude of hosting an event like the Olympics into consideration, they were (for the most part) relatively-minor hiccups. Now, perhaps the 2010 FIFA World Cup will be all about soccer. Perhaps the media will be lamenting poor grass quality on the fields, traffic congestion, and cramped athletes' quarters. Let's hope. But maybe, and it is a real possibility, the coverage will be much worse.

Because if international soccer fans are carjacked, assaulted, raped, and murdered at the rate that statistics demonstrate is a reality in South Africa, that will be a story that not even the world's most popular sport can overshadow.