EDITORIAL: Despite the history, SA needs the 2023 rugby World Cup
South Africans need to remind themselves that no matter how deep the quagmire into which our politicians have sunk us, this is no reason to stop striving for the kind of life we want to live
It won’t be easy to muster broad-based support within SA for the country’s bid to host the 2023 rugby World Cup, against competing bids from France and Ireland — notwithstanding deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa’s lyrical references to national unity and the rapidly fading memory of the Boks’ victory over the All Blacks in the dying minutes of the final in 1995.As memories of Madiba rallying the nation in the Boks’ number-six jersey dwindle, some less-great memories of the nation’s dalliances with mega-sports events persist.Most of us would rather forget the 2010 soccer World Cup’s price tag of about US$3.8bn — including $1.3bn spent on building stadiums.The sting from that event lingers still, as the construction industry continues to smart from a R1.46bn collective fine for its role in colluding during the stadium-building bonanza, As penance, those companies are now being strong-armed into collectively spending another R1.5bn to transform the sector.SA would also prefer not to be ...
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