Is South Africa safe enough?

In the wake of happenings in Angola, questions have been raised if South Africa will be safe enough place for hosting World Cup.

When the nation was first selected as the country to host the FIFA 2010 World Cup some of the main questions were raised about the safety in the country. South Africa is notorious for having a very high crime rate. I've even read a ridiculus statistic that every 8th woman in the nation has been raped, giving South Africa the name "rape capital of the world". Assaults and violent crimes have been the main worry, alongside car hijacking. The violent crimes have started to show a decrese in recent years, but the rape and hijacking rates are still one of the biggest in the world.

All that has lead the goverment to build gated communities, which consists of a group of suburban street blocks, where road exits have been fenced off with the exception of one or more entrances, all guarded by security personel.

It is a worry, but should South Africa now suffer from the anti publicity of Angola. Would a World Cup taking place in for example France be questioned if there are doubts about player safety in Italy?

Whilst it's a bit out of context comparrison, as Africa is still largely considered as the 3rd world, it does offer, if anything else, at least confidence to everybody, the players, managers, fans who are looking forward to the summer's competition.

There always a risk something negative could happen, but in some sense the attack on the Togo team in Angola, came at a perfect time. It showed to the world that there are safety issues in Africa, which will make them more careful in the summer if they visit South Africa and it showed the organizing commitee that it would not be a bad idea to make some extra efforts to make the competition safe. Everybody will want to talk about the football being played, not the negative issues that could pop up.