Mega-events have differential long-term financial and social benefits for
various groups in host communities. Post-apartheid South Africa provides a
useful example of the way that large-scale sporting events have been sought in
an effort to promote tourism and economic development. South Africa bid
unsuccessfully for the 2004 Olympics and 2006 soccer World Cup (see Swart
and Bob, and Cornelissen in this issue) following its successful hosting of the
1995 Rugby World Cup (RWC) and 1996 Africa Cup of Nations soccer
tournament. Recently South Africa was awarded the 2010 soccer World Cup.
The 1995 RWC was presented as bringing together ‘a world in union’ in a
‘rainbow nation’ finally free from the vestiges of apartheid. Desperate to
stimulate foreign investment, the African National Congress-led government
supported a tournament in a sport that remained central to the identities
of the white minority, and which had traditionally alienated black South
Africans.