South Africa: Soccer, puddles and security
By CARE
South Africa: I think of orange-tinted sunlight spreading across vast grasslands, animals lounging around in the heat, brightly-coloured cities, people whose passion for football is second to nothing.
Blue skies, football fever - this is how we imagine South Africa to be (photo: CARE/Bräutigam)
South Africa: I land at Johannesburg airport and what I see is: rain, nothing but cloudy skies. I wonder if the aircraft didn’t circle above Europe for 10 hours and then drop us off accidentally in Cologne again. But suddenly I catch a glimpse of some footballs and Vuvuzelas in the arrival area. Indeed, this must be South Africa.
It’s bucketing down in the land of the rainbow nation
Later, the owner of the hotel will tell me that he hadn’t seen such kind of weather for years. On our way from Johannesburg airport to Pretoria we see rain pouring down like water jets from a shower followed by rain softly sprinkling the earth. We have planned to stay for a week in South Africa in order to visit the CARE Soccer project “Kick it” and “Stars of Tomorrow”. But already in the car I learn that our first point of programme is rained off: with this weather there won’t be any soccer trainings for the children in Soshanguve. My colleague Pauline from the local partner organisation “Kick-It Rephele” tells me on the phone that the soccer fields are a muddy brew and the kids who in most cases play bare-footed or in flip-flops are not able to practice.
How safe is South Africa?
I sit gloomily in the car seat and stare into the hazy landscape. The rain has changed the roadsides into muddy ditches but the weather does not affect the ongoing road works. How important these works are, becomes apparent when soon afterwards we are stuck in the first traffic jam. Evert, our driver, is a white South African guy grown up in Johannesburg and he merely pulls the road system to pieces. “Endless traffic jams, bad roads and too much cars”, he says. Soon our conversation changes to violence in South Africa. Violence is always an implicit issue with the media coverage of the World Cup. I ask Evert whether he considers things to be that bad and he says: “It’s even worse.” That he permanently feels threatened and that his father has been killed in an armed robbery some time ago. ”I am a target in Johannesburg because I am white”, he says.
He provided his house with several electrical gates, motion detectors monitor every person approaching the house at night. I wonder how it must be to feel constantly threatened in your home country. “I’d prefer to leave, but where shall I go?”, he asks. He even applied for asylum in different countries but up to now without success. Feeling a bit queasy we get out of the car. My colleague and I wonder whether Evert’s opinion is exaggerated and whether we should consider every person to be suspicious.
Welcome to Soshanguve!
But then in the afternoon we leave Pretoria for Soshanguve. The so-called township is what you would call the countertype of Pretoria. About two and a half million black South Africans live here. There you won’t find big office towers and posh Victorian mansions. Themba, a Metro policeman, gets into our car. He cordially receives us by saying: “Welcome to South Africa”. We drive along the outskirts of Soshanguve heading for the Kick-it office. Themba lives in Soshanguve. During the day he works in the police office and at night in the Kick-it office. Five years ago he founded “Kick-it Rephele” together with some colleagues.
Today 30 coaches play soccer, volleyball and basketball with the kids at 13 different places in Soshanguve and at the same time inform about the risks of AIDS, drugs and crime. Themba is enthusiastic about his home country. Soshanguve is great; there is nothing you need to be afraid of. That trainers and kids look forward to our visit and that we should see all 13 locations if possible, because everyone wanted to see us. Hearing this took all our doubts away. In the evening when we return to our hotel secured by electrical fences and big gates, we already look forward to come back to Soshanguve in the morning. There, in the township, I feel more at ease than in the isolated quarters of the wealthy people.
