The Soccer World Cup In South Africa - How Much Did The After Effects Cost Us

There is so much hype and apparent excitement surrounding the impending Soccer World Cup here in South Africa.

People have been going on about how it will boost tourism to the country, how it will create jobs for a few thousand of the unemployed millions in the country, and how the country will benefit from it.

Sure, a lot of people will benefit from selling World Cup memorabilia, guest houses and accommodation establishments will benefit from extra guests, shops will benefit from increased sales, and a lot of workers will have benefited from building the World Cup stadiums. Eskom will definitely benefit from the increased electricity usage (yay, maybe they will be able to generate enough revenue from it to build an additional power station without increasing our tariffs over the next two years - NOT). Transport providers will surely benefit over this time as well, with many providers having to provide extra forms of transport for the eager fans and supporters.

Not many folk though, have considered the after effects of the World Cup. You may be asking, "What after effects could there possible be from hosting one of the biggest sporting events of the year?"

First and foremost, the construction workers who built the stadiums will now once again be unemployed, as there is no more need for them once the stadiums are completed. Many other companies will also end up laying off workers, because there will simply be no work for them to do, and unemployment will once again rise to record highs (although that is by no means unusual here in South Africa, where unemployment levels often teeter around the 35% to 45% mark).

Thee stadiums that were built to host one or two games, will now end up standing like white elephants, because we simply do not have the capacity to fill them with any of the other events that are hosted here. These stadiums will each end up costing the humble taxpayer in the region of around R35 000 000/$4 667 000 a year to maintain/upkeep. Multiply that by the number of stadiums that have been built...I think you understand where I am coming from.

With the influx of foreign visitors to the country, they will also unfortunately bring along with them a host of sicknesses and germs that were previously not known to us. Strange viruses will once again abound, very much like what happened in 1995 after the last major sporting event here (hint - think rugby).

Crime rates will soar during this time as well, owing to the fact that there will be so many empty homes and vehicles at stadiums while the games are in progress, because the criminals know that most of our police and security forces will be deployed at the game events for security purposes.

Another scenario that most people will not want to think about, but which will unfortunately take place, is a lot more prostitution during this time. Parents will have to be far more vigiliant with their children, knowing their whereabouts even more so than ever before.

Unfortunately, with having a lot of foreign visitors, many local businesses have seen fit to inflate the prices of goods and commodities drastically. With the exchange rate of our Rand versus that of the pound, dollar or euro, one can safely say that the locals will bear the brunt of these increases, as their salaries have definitely not increased accordingly over the past few years. Once the visitors have returned home, the locals will still be left with these highly inflated prices, which will drive inflation higher than it already is.

I know this all sounds rather negative, and it would seem like I am putting a damper on the current hype surrounding the Soccer World Cup, but at the end of the day, what will the real cost be to the locals? Inflation, as well as even more unemployment than before.