Front page headlines told the story of the attack by hooded gunmen, on the Togo soccer team busses headed for the Africa Cup of Nations tournament, as they entered the troubled Cabinda enclave destination in Northern Angola. The ambushers, believed to be pro-independence insurgents, killed three men “like dogs” and wounded others including one who is in a Johannesburg hospital where he underwent an emergency operation.

The ink was hardly dry when the CEO of South Africa’s organizing committee for the World Cup later this year, Danny Jordaan, headed discussion off at a tangent. He referred angrily to British press comment raising possible concern now for that ambitious event, saying this indicated geographic ignorance and political bias. Would a similar attack anywhere else in the world cause concern about a major sports event to be staged in Britain, for instance?

Radio airwaves soon carried angry black voices, as the race card was played again. Echoes immediately of how Caster Semenya’s victory in record time at the ladies’ 800m world championship last year, following questions about her gender, became immediately a racist plot. The head of Athletics SA at that time, after admitting and denying everything, is probably still confused but by now profitably re-deployed.

Mr Jordaan is right in pointing out the considerable distance between Cabinda and SA,
which is apparently still the shortest distance from there to professional surgical care. Regarding clear differences between one African country and another, it is presumed our World Cup boss is not suggesting that one is somehow superior to another. In more important ethnic and cultural terms, I would suggest that Cabinda is just a heart beat away.

There was a time when this might have been hotly disputed, but less so perhaps since TV glimpses of President Zuma and his newest wife, traditionally attired in leopard skins,
dancing at their wedding at his remote home village of Nkandla. According to a recent survey most people in SA are not in favour of polygamy …but feel the President should be allowed privacy.

To detour briefly by way of balance: One of my most embarrassing experiences was a sudden silence descending on a social gathering in Australia many years ago, as people focused attention on a television set. I heard the unmistakable accent of the tour guide on the screen, talking to a visiting group standing around somewhere in Kwa-Zulu Natal:

“Now, you have all been told how badly we treat our black people. I will show you”. He clicks his fingers and a large black mama trots up and takes her position. He pushes and prods here and there, turning her around and shaking her flesh. “There”, he says smugly, “there. Fat. That is how we treat them”.

But let me leave yesterday’s ghosts in peace and speak again to power. What else makes the gap between Cabinda and SA so wide that terrorist action there is unthinkable here? What about neighbouring Zimbabwe as an entry point? A state in shambles and without border control? Let’s not be too proud either in pointing to the skylines and traffic and restaurants of our major cities, built primarily by those who have gone before. There are also the signs of neglect and desperation.

Photos recently received via a migrant from “the old Johannesburg” I grew up in – including notably Yeoville and Bellevue East – reflect the social impact there of unheeding political change. Familiar ground to Financial Planning Minister Trevor Manuel, he might be saddened to look at the pictures of Rocky Street, one showing a petrol station closed down and abandoned years ago after a series of robberies was followed by the murder of the owner. An old pump hose still hangs on its hook. There are rows of gutted houses, leaning fences, broken windows, missing roofs, trashed gardens, litter everywhere.

The problem is familiarly Africa’s – too many people and not enough money. Behind that, not enough work ethic, as has been signalled by the country’s recent Matric results. Not enough accountability, when after all these years of widely acknowledged political corruption at the top, nobody except Schabir Shaik, now on parole, has paid any kind of a price (for fraud and corruption convictions involving the President – against whom charges were withdrawn).

One can understand Shaik’s four letter words. Everybody now expects him to be granted a Presidential pardon, and probably also cold-blooded apartheid hit-man and torturer Eugene de Kock, as Zuma seeks to keep everybody happy his way, and the courts are useless anyway.

As we leave Danny Jordaan pondering over poor World Cup ticket sales for games featuring African teams, especially Bafana Bafana – there really are poor people out there, you know – another event draws near.

Next up on the new year calendar should be the appointment of the new CEO of Transnet (railways and harbours) by the board and the Minister of Public Enterprises, Barbara Hogan. She has against her at least two senior ministers who have reason to prefer acquisition contract procedures and people to remain in place. Of course, when she held out and had her way for similar good reason at electricity supplier Eskom, there was the same old losers’ chorus. Let’s hope we hear it again.