DA condemns World Cup treats

By Nomava Nobumba
07 April 2010

The Democratic Alliance has condemned the article published in the British newspaper under the headline “World Cup machete threat”, which claims that machete gangs are roaming the streets of South Africa after AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche’s murder.

Reports say a civil war could erupt, and that South Africa’s hosting of the World Cup is under threat.

Spokesperson Lindiwe Mazibuko says it is difficult to see how this could be viewed as anything less than an unashamed attempt to turn British tourists off the idea of visiting South Africa.

“South Africa takes security of its citizens and tourists seriously and is fully confident about staging the biggest event in the world not just successfully but at a new standard of excellence,” said Mazibuko.

Mazibuko adds they understand reports may be traditionally associated with sensationalist reporting but this particular report goes far beyond mere embellishing the facts.

“It simply makes them up as it goes along".

These sorts of claims are self-evidently false to South Africans familiar with the local situation, but they create the real possibility that foreign readers, potential tourists and even investors ill have their opinions on South Africa inalterably skewed,” she said.

Reports claims that a civil war in South Africa could threaten the county’s World Cup, but Mazibuko says the truth is that the most serious threat to our World Cup is inaccurate propaganda, dressed up as factual reporting, that frightens away tourists in their thousands.