Joburg has been quiet for the past two days, no soccer action! We got used to rushing home and being stuck in traffic as people find their way to the stadiums. But in all this silence I spent time at the Team Village of the 32 teams taking part in the Football for Hope Festival which kicks off in Alexandra on Sunday.

Young people are taking part in a mixed 5 aside tournament which has no referee and where disagreements are resolved through dialogue. I spoke to two of them, 17 year old Hemanta Acharya and 18 year old Mubasher Hassan. They are part of the Football United Team from Australia. Both are refugees. Hemanta is Bhutanese and Hassan is Sudanese. Other team members are from Kenya, Iraq and Cyprus.

They are excited about being in South Africa and looking forward to making new friends from other teams. While they are here for the soccer tournament they will also be learning about being good leaders and HIV/AIDS amongst other issues.

Today, the soccer action returns with Ghana taking on Uruguay at Soccer City.

I’m wearing a t’shirt with the map of Africa and I feel like a Black Star!!!!

SW Radio Africa recently interviewed Tony Reeler head of the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) about the Zimbabwean crisis and what will resolve it. Read more here and below is an excerpt:

GONDA: And what are the main concerns of the people on the ground, especially the people that participated in the survey?

REELER: Well we asked them a very interesting question. We asked them what is the way forward? And we gave them a choice of – what are the three most important things for you to solve the problems with Zimbabwe? And that came back in rank order, three things. They said Number One – an end to violence, Number Two – free and fair elections and Number Three – democracy and those are very important things coming from ordinary citizens because that’s what has continuously emerged from the Afro-barometer surveys over the last five or six years – is they show that Zimbabweans have a very acute understanding of what democracy is, its manifestations and that they also have a very acute understanding that they don’t have a democracy.

So what you can see is Zimbabweans want a solution, they want a solution in a particular way, they want elections that are non-violent that restore democracy essentially. I think they also said there has been some improvement due to the inclusive government and the Global Political Agreement and they saw some improvements in health and a few improvements in education but they also saw many areas in which there was no improvement whatsoever. What we are hearing from discussions within communities are people who are deeply concerned about whether this Global Political Agreement and the inclusive government is working and people who are very concerned that there is a resolution to this crisis. And I think what people are saying is they understand quite clearly that the solution to a political crisis will be an election. That’s the Zimbabwean perspective. In other countries what used to happen was that you used to have military coups or rebellions as we’ve had to do to get rid of white colonial power here but Zimbabweans are saying they put their faith in an electoral process. That’s what they hope will resolve the crisis and clearly what that means is, is that people’s votes translate into the reality they expect and the majority of people, when they vote, expect a particular outcome, that they will in fact elect the party of their choice.

A sports commentator recently compared the soccer world cup to the 2nd world war saying something to the effect that the French have surrendered, the Americans came into it late and the English were left to do battle with Germany.

In the second issue of the Kubatana vendor wrap, Zanele Manhenga wrote about people who make Zimbabwe work. She cited a kombi driver as an example and explained how these people are important to our day-to-day activities.

When distributing the second vendor wrap in Greendale, we met Mai Fungai who operates a tomato and vegetable market. Her crew includes Mai Sharon, Mai Peter and Mai Matwins. With their tomatoes neatly packed and ordered in an appetizing manner, Mai Fungai was not hesitant to have a photograph taken. Posing in several stances, she proudly shouted “Ndini iyeyo nemusika wangu” meaning ‘it is me with my table’. With her colleagues shouting in support the whole place turned lively as we laughed together.

In these people it is easy to notice the time and effort that they employ in neatly packaging their tomatoes and vegetables. What cannot be hidden from their character and faces is the pride that they have about their work. It is clear that these women do not have much in terms of material wealth, but they have all that it takes to be happy and enjoy their work. It is true that positive thinking and enough effort yields positive results and satisfaction.

Surely if we could all be this happy and proud of our work, Zimbabwe would bloom with the flowers of joy.

Young Zimbabwean foot ballers.

The whole of Africa unites in celebration of Ghana’s victory over the USA.  Africa has every reason to be extremely proud of Ghana who “match the best qualities of athleticism, stamina and never say die spirit”. Player Asamaah Gyan said “We’ve done it before … Ghana is one of the best in the world cup, not for Ghana alone but, for Africa”. I am personally very impressed with Ghana’s performance as they are not capable of matching the USA in terms of money and expenditure put into sport, but yet they are able to not only match, but also better the USA’s performance on the pitch.