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I am supporting South Africa in today’s match, although part of me feels that the French team needs all the support it can get. With Nicolas Anelka sent home, the team refusing to train on Sunday, resignations from within their camp and both teams needing to win today it will definitely be a great match to watch.

But I’m sticking to supporting Bafana Bafana. That’s not because I don’t like Les Bleus, in the past they have played some spectacular football. And I like France; I have travelled around the country and had some amazing holidays there. My preference is simply for South Africa.

Both countries have had revolutions, France in 1789 and South Africa more recently in 1994, the result of a negotiated settlement. 16 years later South Africa is hosting the first World Cup in Africa – and to date is doing so very well, with none of the pre-tournament concerns coming to fruition.

South Africa is a vibrant functioning democracy, which people campaigned, suffered and sacrificed to achieve. It is now a country for all its citizens. Much has been achieved with pensions, a form of child benefit, and many now have water, electricity and homes. There is however, still great poverty, gross inequality, issues of service delivery and challenges of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

The World Cup is no panacea for these challenges. But what it does do is bring the issues affecting the country to those with little existing knowledge. Alan Hanson, Alan Shearer and Garry Lineker were discussing on Sunday on the BBC the forced removal of 60,000 residents from District Six, Cape Town in the 1970s by the apartheid regime; this isn’t your usual post match analysis! People are widely talking about the history of South Africa and the challenges facing the country today; this is important as hopefully this interest in the issues will continue after the World Cup.

I’ve been interested in the statistics the World Development Movement has used. France, as expected, comes out on top, although South Africa does do better on the number of women in government, 41.4% against France’s 17.6%. The statistics are interesting and useful, but they don’t tell the full story.

They don’t convey the activity and sacrifice to bring democratic, non-racist, non-sexist South Africa into being, or the issues of governance and community mobilisation. Also you can use the statistics to guide your choice in different ways. A country that scores low because of poverty, inequality, quality of life indicators may actually deserve support more than a country which scores well.

I am cheering on South Africa because I want to support the people of South Africa and their efforts to eradicate poverty, provide decent jobs and homes, better education and health care. I also want South Africans to have the joy of a win, to celebrate. I think a win today for South Africa celebrates the achievement of ending apartheid; one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century and certainly something celebrate. But ending apartheid great as that was is only half the battle, South and southern Africa wants solidarity and support today to help achieve socio economic transformation.  I hope a win today for South Africa will also lead to even greater solidarity between people, groups and organisations there and here.

Development is not only about tangible things; it is also about being able to enjoy life, enjoy art, music and sport. So my call today is come on Bafana Bafana you can do it.

Posted in: France, France-South Africa, South Africa

Views expressed here are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the World Development Movement.