The South African Vuvuzela: Love it or Hate it 
There has been various opinions regarding the Vuvuzela, there are some who embrace it and all it symbolises and some who are just downright annoyed by it. So I decided to do a little digging to discover where the vuvuzela originated and what it symbolises because let’s face it, whether you love it or hate it, the vuvuzela is definitely here to stay.
What is a Vuvuzela?
The Vuvuzela is a musical instrument but not always a very pleasant sounding one. The Vuvuzela, sometimes called a “Lepatata” (its Setswana Name) or a stadium horn is a trumpet shaped horn that is approximately 1 metre long and is blown at soccer stadiums in support. Traditionally made and inspired from the kudu horn, the vuvuzela was used to summon distant villagers to attend a community gathering.
The Origination Of The Vuvuzela
Unfortunately, much to my dismay I have discovered the exact origin of the vuvuzela is unclear as there are many who claim it as their own and there is a lack of evidence to prove any of the claims as being true. Freddie “Saadam” Maake was one such person who claimed to have adapted an aluminium version out of a bicycle horn in 1965 and has photographs showing him holding the horn in the 1970’s, 1980’s & 1990’s.
The Controversy
The musical instrument in question has sparked much controversy from both South Africans and Tourists. Many people feel that the vuvuzela can cause hearing loss and hamper the overall enjoyment of the game. Whilst others felt that it is an important part of South African culture. I am certain that there must have been many people becoming frustrated at the soccer stadiums with the constant horn blowing. There was even talk of banning them during the world cup although FIFA ™ eventually after much deliberation decided to allow the vuvuzela at the games. He went on record t o state that it is an important part of the South African Culture and it is after all an African World Cup.
I have included two rather funny video I have come across during my research that I thought I should share with you.
Gandalf Goes to the World Cup
Vuvuzela in DOOM
When all is said and done, I have always felt that the vuvuzela, in all it’s noisy glory means much more than just making a noise. It is a means of communication, it allows the fans to communicate to their team that they are supporting them and offers encouragement to them. What’ s more is that the vuvuzela has crossed over racial boundaries in our country where we now have witnessed citizens of all races blowing their vuvuzela fervently at games. The vuvuzela has introduced the world to a special piece of South African culture and heritage and I can safely say that many tourists will be taking a vuvuzela home with them.
I hope that you too will look past its noisiness and see the vuvuzela for what it is, a piece of our heritage. I also hope that even though South Africa is no longer in the World Cup that you will choose another team to support and show the world the beauty of being a South African.
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Tourist spending boosts South African economy.
South Africa and its people have indeed benefited from the on-going 2010 FIFA World Cup™
This week the Department of Home Affairs announced that 682507 tourists entered the country. The entire travel and tourism sector has experienced a boom since the start of the tournament. Car hire companies, airlines and transport services, for instance, were busier and bigger than they have ever been.
The South African economy has received a boost from international tourists flocking the country to watch the 2010 soccer World Cup.
During the period leading up to the kick-off of the World Cup and the first week of tournament matches, spending by international visitors on Visa-branded payment cards exceeded US$128 million (R974 million), up 54 percent from US$83 million (R629 million) during the same period in 2009.
The number of transactions from June 1 through June 20 was 900,000 (45,000 per day on average), up 60 percent from nearly 600,000 (30,000 a day on average) during the same 20 days in 2009.
The advertising economy in South Africa is set to receive a massive $200m boost this year as brands such as Nike plough millions into targeting World Cup fans Nike, which is not an official sponsor of the World Cup, has just unveiled a campaign on Africa’s largest digital advertising screen on a 30-storey building in Johannesburg, which displays messages sent by fans via Facebook and Twitter that will appear alongside digital images of football stars signed to the brand.
I think after reading all the blogs posts of this week, South Africans can be proud to host such a good and successful Soccer World Cup.
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Communication during the FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa
The 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa has seen thousands of international visitors from every corner of the world stream in to watch their favourite football/soccer team play in this prestigious tournament that culminates on the 11th of July 2010.
I had the opportunity to meet a few of these foreigners socially and managed to slip in a few questions on what they thought about South Africa, it’s people and what mediums of communication they use to communicate with family back home.
Every single one of the responses I got on “What do you think of our country and our people?” was a positive response saying that they are enjoying their time in South Africa and remarked on how friendly and hospitable South Africans are.
On the question “What do you use to communicate back home?” They usually responded with one of the following: “Facebook off course”, “E-Mail” and “Skype”. The latter more often than the others as Skype is an instant communication tool with voice and video functionality that is much cheaper than traditional calls.
I also generally found that the accommodation providers usually had internet facilities on their premises and where there weren’t there was always an internet café close by to help foreigners communicate back home.
Lastly I want to say that the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ has been a great success so far and will always be remembered by the people of South Africa and international visitors alike.
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What do foreigners think of South Africa ?
As everyone know it is World Cup time, and we are so lucky to be part of this great sporting event here in SA. A couple of months ago I decided that I would love to see some games live so I went out and got tickets for two games in the first week of the World Cup. I attended to the Netherlands vs Denmark game at Soccer City as well as the Chile vs Honduras game at the Mbombela Stadium.
One thing that I made a point of was to talk to the supporters of the different teams about the upcoming game over a beer. We also just had a chat about their stay in South Africa. I wanted to know what they had done so far and what they are still planning on doing in South Africa this included what places they where going to visit etc. I found that every single person that I talked to have visited or where going to visit the Kruger National park. I think that it is on every visitor’s to do list to see the big 5.
One question that always popped up was what do they think of the country?
I had beers with Algerian, Argentinean, Dutch, Danish, Chilean, Honduran and Brazilian supporters so far and not one of them had something bad to say. Everyone is very excited and are looking forward to the time that they still have left here.
Two Chile supporters told me last week that they also attended the World Cup in France in 1998 and that the World Cup here is a total different experience. They said the people here are very friendly and that it is an overall great experience for them.
I am sure that there might be people that don’t have such a pleasant stay in our beautiful country but I can guarantee you that it can happen anywhere. There is still a lot of the World cup left and I will definitely do my part to welcome the people in South Africa and make their stay a pleasant one.
Feel it it is here!
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Soccer World Cup and what it means for South Africa
As our company has it’s origins in South Africa we thought we would get a bit sidetracked from our usual emarketing post to give the world and South Africa an idea of what we think the world cup means for us.
Now South Africa is a relatively isolated country, if you compare it to countries in the Euro zone or most 1st world countries. South Africans don’t travel overseas nearly as often as most people from the countries that will be visiting South Africa for the World Cup. This means we are very closed off when it comes to understanding other world cultures. This tournament will definitely open South African’s eyes to how we can really integrate in the Rainbow nation and overcome cultural differences by experiencing all the different cultures.
Secondly because South Africa is relatively isolated not as many people visit its beautiful shores as we think they should 
The world cup will definitely be an amazing advertising and branding event for South Africa. With over 450 000 foreign visitors crossing the border into South Africa, since the start of the tournament, it will definitely carry the South African brand further and wider than any marketing campaign we could dream up.
Trust is also something South Africa needed to establish with the outside world. Foreign media quite often focus on the negative issues in South Africa, leaving our overall image tarnished. By pulling off, arguably the biggest sporting event in the world, South Africa has shown foreigners that they can trust us. Trust is a very important thing as it creates and environment in which tourism and investment flourishes.
This world cup has even had long lasting effects on South Africa’s social media as Twitter has never experienced as many tweets ever, with trending topics related to South Africa taking up of 5 out of the 10 spots. This should mean that Social media in terms of Twitter and Facebook should gain even more traction and create a great market for advertisers to connect with clients.
Now one of the most influential aspects that this world cup has had is the unification that it brought to the country. There is nothing like a sporting event like this to unify a country that often struggles to overcome cultural differences. In my honest opinion this is the most important effect that the World Cup has brought to South Africa. If a nation stands together they can overcome all other problems in their country.
We really think that most of these will have lasting effects on our country that we will probably never be able to measure but these are still critical for a country to build itself and develop. Staying with this theme we will have some more post this week related to the World Cup so check in again and feel free to leave a comments.
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