VUVUZELAS are being blown by people of almost all nationalities here and flags of different countries are wrapped on cars, shops and at people's homes.
Almost everything here has a World Cup message and feel to it.
In a rare spectacle, a group of whites can be seen watching a soccer match in Alexandra and Kliptown, two of South Africa's poorest informal settlements, with black fans.
For a moment the race and economic divide that has clouded the rainbow in this diverse nation appears to have cleared.
It is all fun and flair as people are eating, drinking and sleeping soccer.
People here say there has never been such enthusiasm and excitement and this sort of unity in South Africa.
But not for 36-year-old Zimbabwean Fickion Mudhimba. He is already packing his bags, fearing for the worst after the World Cup.
A holder of an asylum document and coming from Bulawayo, Mudhimba works in a restaurant at Deutsche Internationale Schule in Auckland Park, Johannesburg.
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Each time he walks in his neighbourhood, extension seven of Diesploot, an informal settlement north of Johannesburg, he constantly watches his back fearing that a xenophobic attack could explode anytime.
"I am happy that the World Cup is being held in South Africa. But my greatest fear is what will happen after, with the threats I have received," he says.
Mudhimba claims he was a victim of the 2008 xenophobic attacks and fears that he might go through the same ordeal again.
"From my memories of May 2008 these people are serious. It's very easy for them to mobilise each other. I consider myself lucky that I was at work when they looted my television set, DVD player and clothes and also that my family was not around," Mudhimba said.
"I hope I will be able to get some days off so I can take my family home. I am not going to take any chances. You never know what might happen. I will return observing the situation."
Xenophobic fears have drowned the World Cup excitement for many Zimbabweans living in informal settlements around South Africa.
The Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, a Pretoria-based group advocating the rights of exiles, has written to the South African government to make adequate arrangements to avoid a repeat of xenophobic attacks.
"The Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF) is deeply disturbed by reports received from Zimbabweans based in South Africa that they have been warned by South African citizens that foreigners, particularly Zimbabweans, will be forced to flee South Africa after the World Cup. In some instances, they have been issued with deadlines to leave South Africa or face xenophobic attacks," wrote ZEF executive director Gabriel Shumba to South Africa's Ministry of State Security.
Chances are high that South Africans and foreigners will fight for jobs following data released on Tuesday by Adcorp Employment Index, a recruitment, public relations and market research organisation, which revealed that employment in South Africa fell by 6,2%, with the hardest hit sector being the construction industry.
Despite the job market being gloomy, Zimbabweans have been widely blamed for perpetrating violence. Two Zimbabweans were sentenced to 15 years in jail recently.
The Zimbabweans, Bright Madzidzi and George Magubane, and a Nigerian were convicted of stealing from three foreign journalists.
A senior magistrate at the Johannesburg magistrates' court who spoke to Zimbabwe Independent on condition of anonymity said he was happy with the swift justice that was meted out and thought that the 15-year jail sentence on the Zimbabweans was fair.
"Foreigners are the main perpetrators of crime. Some of them live at the Methodist Church (in central Johannesburg)," the magistrate said. "They do not have proper papers and it becomes difficult for them to look for jobs. So they would look for other means of survival."
But not everyone is happy with this kind of justice.
A law professor at the University of Cape Town, Pierre De Vos, on Wednesday said some of the sentences were stiff and excessive.
He said: "World Cup courts have dished out very heavy sentences to those convicted. I am not too familiar with the Zimbabwean case, but a 15-year sentence for armed robbery is quite a stiff one."
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga told the Independent that as of June 21, 76 World Cup-related cases had been reported. Thirty of these had already been finalised with 28 convictions and two acquittals.
Some cases have been withdrawn due to insufficient evidence, said Mhaga.
He said that it was mainly non-South Africans who were perpetrators of the crimes.
"Sentences that have been imposed are appropriate as they are based on the circumstances of each case and if the accused view them as harsh they have a constitutionally entrenched right to appeal," said Mhaga.
Southern African Development Community director of Infrastructure and Services Remmy Makumbe last week said xenophobia was a threat to social and economic integration in the region.
"This is an issue that has been discussed by the secretariat and member states themselves," he said. "The use of historical perspective has been chosen as the basis to solving the issue. However, it's the responsibility of each member state to tackle this problem."
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