The South African government, through the Department of Arts and Culture views the FIFA 2010 World Cup as a significant opportunity to showcase our arts, culture and heritage to the world. As promised during our bid, we will present an African World Cup. The Final Draw is a very significant milestone in our journey to the world’s biggest spectacle.
We regard arts, culture and heritage as a critical sector to ensure that the 2010 FIFA World Cup leaves a lasting legacy for our continent and beautiful memories for our visitors. We will use the event as a catalyst to mobilise our people and the youth in programmes that serve to entertain our visitors and educate them about our continent. We welcome all of you and invite you to enjoy our planned events, cuisine, natural beauty of our flora and fauna and the general African hospitality.
The Department of Arts and Culture has assembled a group of eminent individuals in the arts, culture and heritage sector to ensure that we present a cultural programme that will contribute to the upliftment of the sector and empowerment of our nation. Their mandate includes developing a programme that will ensure that the 2010 FIFA World Cup immensely contributes to our existing programmes that seek to foster national pride and patriotism. The various official Final Draw events will see performances by the world renowned Umoja dancers, Lebo Mashile, Jessica Mbamngeni Tshepo Tshola at the Final Draw Show,, Lira, Pops Mohammed and Khaya Mahlangu at the Host City Media Cocktail Party. Our programme wraps up with Malaika, The Amazing Step Sisters and a marimba band St Michaels at the World Press Day Beach party.
FIFA President Joseph S Blatter will join us to open the first Football for Hope Centre in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Football for Hope is a movement led by FIFA and street football world. The centre in Khayelitsha is the first of 20 that will be built in disadvantaged communities across Africa as part of '20 Centres for 2010', the official campaign of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The first six centres will be constructed in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Ghana, Mali and Rwanda.
The Football for Hope Centre in Khayelitsha will be run by Grassroot Soccer, a South African-based, non-profit organisation that uses football to educate young people about HIV and Aids and empower them with the knowledge to live HIV-free. Details of the launch will be released in due course.
Our country is a proud home for eight World Heritage sites and several museums. These include the famous Robben Island and Cape Floral Region, (both in Western Cape Province); Mapungubwe (Limpopo province), Cradle of Humankind (Gauteng province); Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park and Ukhahlamba Drakensburg Park; (both in KwaZulu-Natal province); Vredeford Dome (Free State province) and Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscapes (Northern Cape province). Information on all of these sites can be found on http://www.dac.gov.za.
We also have world-class theatres and playhouses that we will use to host top- class productions to showcase the wealth of talent possessed by our people. We want our visitors to enjoy our theatre, music, dance, poetry, literature, crafts, film, fashion and other activities each time they take time off soccer. We want to categorically state that these are wishes, but rather planned activities which will be available for both our local and visiting patrons to enjoy.
Most of the theatres are strategically positioned nearer host soccer stadiums and hotels. They will thus be easily accessible to our visitors. We believe that as we present programmes that intend to create an unprecedented FIFA World Cup, we will at the same time revitalise our arts, culture and heritage sector through b opportunities that will be created in the process. We believe that the tournament will also expose the South African arts, culture and heritage sector to the international markets. Our country offers fine film-making locations and infrastructure that we regard as of world-class standard. We invite you to make time and visit some of these places.
We believe that the tournament will contribute to our national objective of social cohesion and nation building. We will be unveiling plans to popularise our flag, anthem, national orders and symbols as part of our efforts to mobilise our people into action to present a successful tournament.
As many of you are aware, our nation went through many centuries of difficulties before it achieved freedom and democracy in 1994. It is for this reason that government decided to embark on a programme to ensure that we continue to consolidate democracy and inculcate the spirit of unity and sense of being proud to be South African. We want to assure you that our nation and the continent are very excited about this tournament. We intend to make it the most memorable ever. We will make nations of the world and FIFA proud.
Enquiries:
Mack Lewele
Cell: 082 450 5076
Issued by: Department of Arts and Culture
3 December 2009
