The South Africans are ready to rock and roll, as the countdown to the greatest African sporting spectacle begins. It is World cup time and the excitement is soaring in the country. The world’s most-watched sporting spectacle kicks offs on June 11.
The locals got an opportunity to take a sneak peak at the biggest prize in football - the World Cup trophy, and thousands of excited township dwellers camped in Cape Town's sprawling Khayelitsha town on Friday to catch a glimpse of the trophy at the start of its South Africa tour.
Organizers are hoping the trophy's journey around host South Africa, the last stage of a world tour, will heighten excitement for the tournament. Ticket sales are waning after a brisk start. The local authorities aim to sell the last batch of 500,000 tickets.
People from all lifestyles and of all ages including construction workers, civil servants and the unemployed, thronged to the venue to take pictures with the golden trophy in the city's largest black township.
"The moment has arrived for Africa and FIFA to have one of the most passionate, human driven World Cups in its history," South Africa 2010 Chief Executive Danny Jordaan told those gathered.
"The World Cup trophy is a major symbol. It is what the event is all about," adding that: "The images of previous World Cups, if you remember when you look back when Cafu (Marcos Evangelista de Moreas) got on the platform at the 2002 World Cup and raised the trophy, when Didier Deschamps in 1998 raised the trophy, when Dunga (Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri) in 94 raised the trophy, and in 2006 Cannavaro (Fabio).
"These are the defining moments of the event and for this trophy not to be the domain on the five star hotels and the best places, but to go to the townships because we have to present the hope, the ambition, the dreams to these youngsters because football is a passion in every township in our country."
"So we must invite all of you to bring your cameras and be witness to this great event." He concluded
The trophy is expected to draw big crowds wherever it goes in South Africa, after Cape Town, it would be the turn of Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State, Northern Cape, North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo to play host to the trophy before its return to Gauteng early in June on the eve of the opening match at Soccer City in Johannesburg.
"This is a once in a lifetime experience because that's why I decided to take a photo next to the World Cup because it won't come again, that's what I think, in our lifetime." said a local resident, Andile Gomba.
There was adequate security in place as machine-gun toting policemen clad in bullet-proof vests watched over crowds as they arrived to gawk at the eight kilogram trophy, initially hidden under a black cloth and locked inside a glass container.
For the locals the hopes and dreams of the World Cup trophy remaining on the African continent rest on the shoulders of South Africa's "Bafana Bafana", who play Mexico in the opening match of the tournament.
"Ah man, you know, we feel the heat, Bafana Bafana is going to go to the final, no matter what, its going to go to the final by hook or by crook" said Tools Sindelo, an illustration of local expectations.
The World Cup trophy arrived in South Africa on Thursday and as a symbolic gesture was taken to the former President Nelson Mandela, who was the pivotal figure in his country's successful, bid to host the tournament.
The trophy will remain locked in a safe for the duration of the one month event.
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