subject: Home Foreclosure On The Increase After South Africa World Cup 2010 [print this page] I'm a South African and for the 30 years living in Cape Town I can truly say without a doubt that i am convinced this country will never change. We have just spent R48 billion (1 Rand = 8 Dollars ) to host the world cup which I am glad to say was incident free but me like many are beginning to ask the same question, was it worth it?
I don't think so. I believe that all the money spent hosting the event could have been better spent on measure to reduce crime. Many do however think that it was worth every cent but how far are we going to go to grab the attention of the world to make our country a travel destination before we start fixing the problems at home first. What good is it if we market ourselves all over the world but when visitors do arrive, they are mugged on Table Mountain?
Why not spend all our resources to make South Africa safer? That way when people come here to visit they can be assured that they will be safe.
Isn't a safer country more appealing than a country than a country that's unsafe? I would rather want to spend my hard earned money on a holiday that I know the chances of me being killed or mugged are significantly lower than if I were to go to a beautiful and popular country where i stood the chances of losing my life. What even more upsetting than the crime that I have to face on a daily basis is the fact that most South African were under the impression that is some or other way we would benefit financially from this event. The only industries that have benefited from this event are the entertainment and hospitality industries.
Amidst all the noise of the vuvuzela's(yes that annoying blowing thing), the government have stepped up security for both teams and the general public but now that the world cup has gone things have just returned back to normal. All the reserve police officers that were called back to duty during the event have now been laid off from their posts. Far more worse than this is the economy, which has not really changed in any good way. It was estimated that the world cup 2010 has added 4% to the GDP but at the same time, the event has also put industry on hold thus causing the GDP to lose the 4% because the country basically stood still to host and watch the event.
Prior to the event many people had taken out second home loans to renovate their homes in order to offer accommodation for the "mass of tourists that would come" but they didn't. This has for me been the biggest blow to ordinary hard working middle-class South Africans. To put it fairly many people and industry have lost out but this won't be an excuse when the bank comes to repossess the homes to pay back the loans. Reports are coming out on a daily basis that more and more people have since defaulted on their home loans thus leading to final foreclosure.
My website which supplies visitors with information on where and how to buy bank repossessed houses has seen a significant increase of visitors post world cup. More and more requests are coming into my inbox about people who are defaulting wanting information on what they can do to stop the repossession from occurring.
The bottom line which I hope any person who reads this article will learn is that no matter what you hear about South Africa as far as crime is concerned, always take the correct measures before planning your next holiday here. South Africa is a beautiful country and no doubt it will always be but is that what we are going to be known for or will it be the crime?
