Sandton FIFA Fan FestNot everyone can afford tickets to games, and no one can actually fly around South Africa to attend every match, but Fan Fest parks have been set up which are supposed to mimick the feeling of being in a stadium. There is a giant screen broadcasting the match, a grassy area to watch from, and food and drink stands around. Every host city in South Africa has a Fan Fest park set up, except for Johannesburg. Being the heart of South African soccer and the 2010 World Cup, Joburg has two FIFA Fan Fests. One is in Sandton, the wealthy suburb north of Johannesburg, and the other is in Soweto, the township made famous during the apartheid struggle.
At the Sandton Fan Fest there was a nice mix of fans watching the Ghana vs Serbia game. Black South Africans blew vuvuzelas; European tourists wore their flags around their shoulders; South Americans sang. Surrounding the park were attractive holiday and apartment complexes. Up the hill I had seen police escorting a convoy of six silver Mercedes-Benzes carrying dignitaries from the Legacy Hotel. Nearby, a building was called the Michelangelo Towers. A restaurant was called Maraschino's. It felt like little Europe.
But when I drove into Soweto a few days later I felt like I had returned to Africa. Before heading to the Fan Fest there I thought I would take a look around and drove down Ben Naude Road, into the meat of the township. But the road got narrower and then forked and I feared I would get lost so I backtracked. I found that strip I had driven much like Maseru, in Lesotho, except richer and nicer. There was litter, smoky fires in open spaces, and brick houses with barred windows. But there was less litter than Maseru, the smoke wasn't as black, and the houses were more solid. Taxis and jalopies passed me on the road, and so did Land Rovers and Mercedes-Benzes. One thing I did not see was a non-black.
Back on the bypass highway I headed south toward the Fan Fest and I saw how big Soweto is. It's a conglomeration of townships actually, and estimates of how many people live there today vary from 1 to 4 million. There are no whites because, of course, these townships were where blacks were once forced to settle by the apartheid regime. They were kept away from white neighborhoods, yet still close enough to provide labor.
And this day was actually special for Soweto. It was June 16th, a public holiday called Youth Day, commemorating June 16, 1976, when students organized a protest to being taught in Afrikaans. Police opened fire on that day, kids got killed, the fight against apartheid grew more fierce. But I saw no celebrations on my drive through. I did hear adults on the radio reminding young people where Youth Day comes from and exhorting them not to use it only as an excuse to drink alcohol.
I headed toward the Soweto Fan Fest now, entering on Chris Hani Road, near the southern edge, which led past a hospital, a university, the Maponya Mall – as big and full of chain stores as any other mall in South Africa – and finally signs directed me to the FIFA Fan Fest park. I saw my first Soweto non-Africans there, when some Mexican tourists pulled up and parked near me. Inside, only a handful of the thousands of fans were not black South Africans. Young men walked around selling single cigarettes to other young men. Vuvuzelas tooted as Switzerland upset Spain 1-0.
And I appreciated the spectrum the two Fan Fest parks had shown me, that they were set up on both sides of the Johannesburg tracks.