Don’t let fear spoil the World Cup

South Africa has all but bankrupted itself to stage a glorious World Cup, says Rian Malan. Shame that all foreigners can do is worry about the nation’s crime rates

Here in Johannesburg, the most striking symptom of World Cup fever is a steady procession of taxis bringing foreign correspondents to my door in search of tips as to how the land lies. Honour requires hacks to help each other, so I always invite the visitors inside to meet my dog, Arabella, pointedly introduced as a Rhodesian Ridgeback. Those whose nostrils wrinkle at the word Rhodesian don’t stay long. Those who laugh get to share my coffee, cigarettes and pensées about the state of the nation.

Ten years ago, foreign correspondents always wanted to know why we Afrikaners were racist, at least in the sense that we lacked enthusiasm for the joyous new society Nelson Mandela seemed bent on creating. These days, their first question is always, ‘How do you live with the constant threat of crime?’ We apparently have the world’s highest rape rate, along with a staggering 18,000 murders per annum. (The UK, with a far larger population, has 900 per annum.) Statistics like these cause many whites to suspect that crime has become a form of ethnic cleansing.

Ten years ago, such talk was deemed a symptom of racist derangement. These days, even Swedish journalists take it seriously. I ought to be gratified, given my own penchant for describing SA as a place of gathering darkness, but I am not. We should never have applied to host an extravaganza so wasteful and vainglorious as a soccer World Cup, but now the die is cast, the billions squandered, and we have to make the best of what looks like a grim situation.