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2010: Apartheid name spat
07/08/2007 20:21 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Tickets for South Africa's
2010 Soccer World Cup will bear both the apartheid-era names of
cities and the new ones, reflecting the nation's evolution while
avoiding confusing visitors, its organisers said on Tuesday.
South Africa's government has been changing the names of
some cities since the end of apartheid in 1994 but the new names
are often not known abroad - the country's administrative
capital Pretoria, for example is now called Tshwane.
"Fifa in our board meeting today came up with a reasonable
solution taking into account the evolution and the
transformation in this country," the chair of the World Cup's
organising committee Irvin Khoza told a news conference.
Name changing is highly sensitive in South Africa. The
black-led government has championed efforts to rename towns or
street names to get rid of apartheid-era names and better
reflect the country's African character, but that has angered
some whites, who fear their history is being eroded.
Road signs will also bear internationally-known names to
make it easier for visitors as many maps and guide books still
use the old names, the World Cup organisers said.
The first African country to host the tournament, South
Africa is expecting up to 3.5 million people to take part in the
month-long event.
Fifa, world soccer's governing body, is working to ensure
that public broadcasters in all African countries will show all
matches for the 2010 World cup, General Secretary Jerome Valcke
told the same news conference.
"We are not organising the World Cup in South Africa to have
no one in Africa watch the World Cup," Valcke said. "It will be
on public television, that's our commitment," he said.
South Africa's Telkom company announced on Tuesday it would
give $36m worth of telecommunication infrastructure as
sponsorship for the event.
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