Date Posted: 2010.07.12

A delightful perspective on the recent Soccer World cup and Cape Town’s Fan Walk, by Harvey Tyson, (one of our pals and) an accomplished writer and journalist.

Further to the Ubuntu business in Soccer Season:
As I've told Jimmy, within a fortnight I have become an expert on the so-called beautiful game. After attending a lesson on 'How to watch soccer" I know all the rules...which is more than the refs do. Anyway. Here's what I really want to tell you:

Catching a train and walking Cape Town's Fan-walk is a lifetime experience. (Portugal scored seven goals and tens of thousand of Ports went wild). But the game is not the point. It is Cape Town's Walk that needs to be experienced on any Fifa-fixture day.

Cape Town suburbanites, on radio and in the press, are telling everybody to forget about trying to get into Green Point stadium - "just walk the walk on game days - you'll be a tourist in your own country. You'll stroll in total safety. You'll make friends with the world". 
All my family and their kids walked it and are going to do it again. You walk, 20 abreast, everyone carrying some sign of their nationality; everyone picking up everyone else's hats, scarves wallets, and returning them to their owners. Every male offering his place in the queue to buy a beer! (I think I exaggerate. It must be every other one - and only on the outward journey)

Its a permanent pedestrian 2.5km walk amid flags, cafes, bars, bands, and stalls selling everythijng from 'vu-vu-vu-vee-zeh-las' to potjiekos and a prognosis of your personal Fate.  .
If you want directions or help, you only have to stand still for some volunteer or cop to come up and offer aid. Even those surly, black government-paid workers who once used to  just stare at you, pretending they were too disadvantaged to be efficient, are gracious and helpful. 
It's miraculous.
Stiltwalkers in the rain might let you walk between their legs if you are foolish enough to care about getting damp. . The Malay bands march, and 'the world' around them clap hands and gyrate. Pretty girls dance and the crowds cheer in the light drizzle.  There is music everywhere. The most popular with "the world" have been half a dozen Constantia-style socialite ladies, doing their own thing and having a ball. They play African drums and orchestral instruments. Everyone loved their act so much during our walk, that the Southern Suburbs senior ladies transformed into Stars..

Here's a conversation I had with five young guys dressed alike in Portuguese sporting fancy dress. We were waiting our turn in the shadow of the stadium, where they let you through five at a time:
"You go first sir"
"No. Today it's Portugues first."
"No sir. You are senior to us."
"Not by much!"
(He could see it was a difference of 50 or more years)
"Even if it is only five years, sir, you must go in front."
I suppose that is what global ubuntu is about.  I hope it lasts the entire season.

In fact, Zille needs to be reminded that Cape Town now has the infrastructure to make the "Fan-walk" a summer seasonal Sunday feature. Without closing streets or altering anything, it can be a Sunday non-traffic two-mile Barcelona-style broadwalk lined with restaurants and studios and bars and leading to the Waterfront as well as 'The Stadium'. Cape Town has created something that might outrank anything I've seen in Rio, B.A., Sydney, Marseilles, San Francisco, the old-New Orleans or anywhere in Europe.  But perhaps security-tight euphoria plus ubuntu don't last very long..

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