Bafana Bafana deepen gloom.

South African national soccer team, Bafana Bafana's very poor performance in the recently concluded African Nations Cup has depressed the spirit of South African fans ahead of the World Cup. And to add to the gloom, the lights might not work! A worried Tom Nevin reports from Johannesburg.

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The talk in South Africa's football taverns these days is divided between the national Bafana Bafana squad's dismal performance in the African Cup of Nations tournament in Ghana and, in often candlelit pubs around the country, whether 2010 World Cup fixtures will all have to be scheduled for daylight hours because there might be no telling if electricity will be available to light the night games.

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Gloomily the conversation has now slid to the 2014 World Cup, following South Africa's first round ejection from the African Nation's Cup after a 1-1 draw with Senegal. Bafana's chances in 2010 are now just too disheartening to talk about and "I think our young players should be moulded to build a team for the 2014 World Cup", says fan Lubalalo Gantsho.

"It is a depressing statistic for South African football that we have failed to reach the quarterfinals of the Nations Cup for the third successive tournament. How the mighty have fallen," says analyst Jonty Mark.

For many disappointed fans, the big lesson from Ghana is that not even one of the world's greatest coaching magicians, Brazil's Carlos Parreira, at a salary of R1.8m a month, can pull the rabbit out of the hat. Not so fast, say the more optimistic. "There's still time with the hope of lessons learnt and a platform placed for the future," maintains another analyst, Mark Gleeson.

The new president of South Africa's ruling ANC political party, Jacob Zuma, convinced that the energy crisis that crippled much of the country in January and February would be playing on the mind of Fifa boss Sepp Blatter, stopped off in Zurich on his way home from the World Economic Forum in Davos to deliver a few reassuring words.

After the whistle-stop, Blatter said Zuma had assured him "of his personal as well as the ANC's and the government's entire commitment to staging a successful Fifa World Cup".

The government went as far as to say that World Cup stadiums would be given the same power supply precedence as hospitals, security installations and other sites on the critical list. Special supply would also be routed to hotels and restaurants at which Cup fans might be staying and dining.

"Today I am very happy to welcome ANC president Zuma to the home of world football. I was also pleased to hear from him that the 2010 Fifa World Cup is fully supported by all political and governmental authorities and indeed the entire population of South Africa," said Blatter after his meeting with Zuma.

To which Zuma added later: "I had a very warm welcome from Mr Blatter today. Adding to what President Thabo Mbeki and the government have said, I am happy to give you the assurance of our full support for the Fifa World Cup with continuity ensured in all key areas."

How much comfort South Africa's bleary-eyed football fans derived from such statements is hard to say, but the fact that the country will have to live with rationed electricity and "load shedding", a now hackneyed euphemism for rolling blackouts, for at least the next six years or so, has put them in a distinctly cynical frame of mind when it comes to government promises.

The energy crunch and the national side's early exit from the Ghana competition came at a time when South Africans were truly beginning to believe that they would beat the deadlines and hold a successful World Cup, and put up a creditable competition showing to boot.

No blackout threat--minister

In the panic of the energy crisis, questions were quickly raised about the fate of the 2010 soccer World Cup. It was also one of the first topics the government scrambled to answer when the lights started going out.

"The 2010 Fifa World Cup will not be affected by the power outages currently being experienced in the country," public enterprises minister Alec Erwin, with minerals and energy minister Buyelwa Sonjica at his side, told a media briefing. "By 2010, government expects to meet the real target of between 2,000 and 3,500MW of electricity being saved from the system."

He outlined the immediate-term, medium-term and long-term steps being taken by the government to "move the system out of its current state. We are viewing the next two years as being critical. In this manner we plan to provide more room to manoeuvre both in this short-term period and in the important year of 2010."

He said back-up systems will be in place for all 10 stadiums as well as the World Cup international broadcast centre.

And by 2010, South Africa expects to have a "far more comfortable" reserve margin, the difference between that produced and that in use at any given point, Erwin said.

Meanwhile, the process of recruiting about 15,000 volunteers to help with the running of the Cup is under way, with several unpaid helper initiatives planned for this year, according to South Africa's 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC).

Ambassadors in the making

The LOC is tracking down the "ordinary people and experts in various fields" it needs for a wide range of 2010 duties. This includes paramedics and doctors, translators, people from the legal fraternity and information technology professionals.

"Over the next few months, the spotlight will fall on ordinary South Africans who want to play a role in ensuring that the 2010 World Cup will be a world-class event," says BUA, the government's information service.

"Previous World Cup tournaments have demonstrated that volunteer programmes play a vital role in securing the buy-in of the public and ensuring the successful hosting of an event of this magnitude. It will be no different in 2010. The first group of volunteers were thrown in at the deep-end for November's 2010 Preliminary Draw in Durban and they passed with flying colours."

But who would be a volunteer, with no pay and dogsbody duty?

It doesn't seem that way to 22-year-old Ayesha Omar, who says she has volunteered because "I want to play my part in making the event a success". Omar, studying for her master's in political philosophy at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, describes the morale and enthusiasm of the volunteer support staff as "high with tremendous national pride".

In Cape Town, the turning out of 'visitor ambassadors' is under way, with the graduation of the programme's first 14 of hundreds of city representatives, whose task will be to make sure the 400,000 World Cup visitors have a good time. Driven by the Cape Town municipality, the project is destined to be a permanent part of the city's visitor services after the Cup has passed into history.

RELATED ARTICLE: African Nations Cup

Blame the ball, says Bafana goalie

South Africa's national squad goalkeeper, Moeneeb Josephs (above), says his poor performance at the Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana should be blamed on the revolutionary new Wawa-Aba football (right) rather than his goalmouth ability.

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Josephs, who missed four balls in two matches, says the balls "flattered the strikers and made goalkeepers look like idiots".

Match statistics show he might have a point and the ball could well have been unpredictable and difficult for goalkeepers to handle. An astonishing 99 goals were scored in the tournament overall, with 70 goals scored in the group matches (a 2.9-goal per game average for the first 24 matches), 13 more than in 2006.

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The Wawa-Aba ball is manufactured by Adidas, the official match ball supplier for the Uefa Euro 2008 tournament and the 2010 Fifa World Cup. It made its debut as the official match ball for the 2008 African Cup of Nations.

"It's terrible, absolutely terrible," says Josephs, "it's not goalkeeper-friendly at all. It's the ball's movement that's the problem. You expect it to do one thing and then it does something totally different, which is hard for a goalkeeper because you're going in one direction and it changes course in mid-air. It isn't that the guys have been scoring good goals, it's the ball that's been making the guys look good."

Football analysts quoted by British website Footy-Boots.com, say this year's African Cup goal fest could be a combination of more attacking play and the Wawa-Aba ball. It is made of 14 panels produced with new thermo bonding technology.

"A thick inner layer enables perfect flight and enables players to optimally control the ball and shoot with incredible power and precision," enthuses Footy-Boots. "It was designed to combine tradition and innovation, and incorporates the red, yellow and green colours of Ghana's national flag."