Speaker, Deputy President, Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, hon members, leaders of football, and organisers of the Local Organising Committee led by Danny Jordaan, I want to tell you today that I asked the ANC regarding the fact that since 2004 up until today Donald Lee has never minced his words in support of the 2010 World Cup. I said that maybe we had taken a wrong decision. When the DA supported the decision we took in 2004, I can recall that Donald Lee said the World Cup was priceless. And when Donald Lee said the World Cup was priceless, we said maybe we should evaluate our decision. But, Deputy President, it means we took the correct decision, to welcome the nations of the world to our shores. [Applause.]
I want to deal with a few things, Deputy President. Countries were saying there was a Plan B if South Africa was unable to host the World Cup. But we were resolute and firm - we never lost our focus on the fact that the World Cup was going to be held in South Africa. Plan A was South Africa, Plan B was South Africa, and there is no other plan apart from South Africa. [Applause.]
Yesterday hon Ndude called me and told me that she had cried in Germany when she saw an article in which somebody had said he or she would have to put on a bulletproof vest when he or she landed at OR Tambo Airport. She said that that was painful. I said the pedlars of lies had to be proven wrong because the World Cup was going to be in South Africa. A few weeks from now there will be a draw, and 32 countries are going to be in this country. South Africa will never be the same. [Applause.]
Regarding our national team's performance, this august House gave us an opportunity to go around the world in order to learn from other countries who have hosted the World Cup before. We went to Korea and Japan. When we arrived there, their teams had been written off because of weak performance. But as the competition progressed, with the people of Korea and Japan supporting their teams which they had initially written off, the Korean and Japanese national teams did fairly well.
We went to Germany and Klinsmann was on the front pages of all the newspapers in Germany. As the tournament progressed, the German national team also progressed, and everybody sported red, black and gold in support of the German national team.
This is going to be the case with Bafana Bafana. All of us as a country will have to unite and rally around this national asset. This will avert a situation in which the people of this country clap and sing for other countries, or we see the early exit from the tournament of our national team.
At its 52nd national conference the ANC took a decision that the infrastructure that was going to be used for the 2010 World Cup should be infrastructure that would leave an everlasting legacy for the people of this country. Therefore, we have to look after these assets and investments so that after the World Cup our people will have nothing to regret. Instead, they should say they want another World Cup to come to South Africa. [Applause.]
Madam Speaker ... Hon Speaker ... [Laughter.]