Mninawa Ntloko
1 October 2008
column
Johannesburg — THEY'RE quite big on conspiracy theories down in Eastern Cape.
It seems there's a prevailing belief that influential figures in Johannesburg - from politicians to journalists to soccer bosses, you name it - spend their time dreaming up exciting and innovative methods of making life in one of the poorest provinces in SA hell on earth.
"People in Gauteng must not just take us for granted," seems to be a common utterance.
Hell, I nearly got my ear bitten off in April when I tried to contact Nelson Mandela Bay municipal manager Graham Richards.
At that time, Port Elizabeth's Nelson Mandela Bay stadium was still hanging on to its status as one of the host venues of next year's Confederations Cup and things were becoming desperate.
It was becoming evident that the Windy City was going to be dumped from the list of venues for the Confederations Cup as world football governing body Fifa was becoming increasingly paranoid over whether a venue that was to be built from scratch would be completed on time.
So when we phoned Richards and indicated that we were calling from Johannesburg, he immediately went into the offensive.
It took a while to get him to calm down because it seems he'd decided that the Johannesburg media was the scum of the earth.
But he eventually came around when he discovered that I was actually from Mthatha and was not part of an imaginary cabal campaigning to have Nelson Mandela stadium dumped from the Cup list.
Fast forward to the present day and now they're thoroughly pissed off in Eastern Cape after the July 8 decision by the 2010 World Cup local organising committee and Fifa that removed Port Elizabeth from the Confederations Cup host city list.
They're convinced that the province fell victim to a power struggle between Port Elizabeth-born Danny Jordaan and the all-powerful Irvin Khoza.
Jordaan, of course, laughed off the whole thing and maintained that it was a board decision that could never have been decided by individuals, no matter how powerful they are supposed to be.
Jordaan said the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium was always a risk as it was the only Confederations Cup venue that was to be built from scratch. "The position was always that the Confederations Cup had to be hosted in completed stadiums. But they made a case that they could complete their stadium in 24 months."
But try telling that to the people in Eastern Cape, because they're not convinced.
They maintain that the stadium would have been completed on time and Fifa jumped the gun only because nobody has faith in the province. They reckon even Fifa president Sepp Blatter hardly ever sets foot in Port Elizabeth and always seems to be in a hurry to get to Cape Town to make sure that Table Mountain is still visible from the Green Point stadium.
"Wouldn't want the bloody mountain to be missing from the backdrop when they make all those 2010 World Cup postcards of the Green Point stadium," remarked another cynical local last week.
The problem is many people in Eastern Cape have put everything on the line in the hope of sharing the Confederations Cup and 2010 World Cup pies.
Apparently volunteer programmes and other employment opportunities that were going to be part of Port Elizabeth hosting the Confederations Cup went up in smoke after the July decision. That is why they are still so livid.
That's why many are now prepared to risk everything on the World Cup.
Some people are thinking of cashing in their life savings and turning their family homes into bed-and-breakfast joints.
Problem is, many of them are in places like Mthatha, and the last time I checked, the former Transkei capital is situated hundreds of kilometres away from Port Elizabeth.
If they fail to make a buck out of these schemes, perhaps it will also be easier to blame it on a Johannesburg conspiracy theory.
Ntloko is sports editor.
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