Cape Town - The World Cup was "almost like a second liberation" for South Africa and has shown the world and the country's citizens that South Africans can deliver a world class event, says LOC boss Danny Jordaan.
Jordaan was speaking alongside Standard Bank chief economist Goolam Ballim and the Minister of Home Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, at the second instalment of the Next Economy National Dialogue held last night in Parliament.
In the first dialogue session, held in March, Minister of Economic Development Ebrahim Patel, member of the National Planning Commission Bobby Godsell and Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi exchanged views on how to tackle growth and unemployment.
Last night, Jordaan, Ballim and Dlamini Zuma took up the discussion by commenting on what the country could learn from the World Cup to boost the economy.
Jordaan said the non-negotiable time frames which had been set down by the World Cup, had forced South Africans to become more effective in delivering work on time.
"So the mould that people operate in was broken, it was finished," said Jordaan, who added that the timely completion of the stadia had enhanced the country's reputation to deliver on time.
He said while initially there were doubts by some about Africa's ability to deliver a world class event, the country had proved them wrong.
"We said it's going to be African and world class and there's no contradiction between African and being world class," said Jordaan.
He added that the World Cup had also provided the country with new infrastructure, had united South Africans, had increased the number of tourist arrivals and rebranded the country as a place for investment and business.
Ballim said the key lesson South Africans could draw from the World Cup was that of the importance of leadership and goal-setting.
Dlamini Zuma pointed out that the World Cup had shown the country's citizens how important partnerships are in getting things done.
"You could see South Africa was working almost as one unit, with its different units," she said.
The event also showed the importance of planning and pointed to the work done by Jordaan's Local Organising Committee and the government's World Cup committee, said Jordaan.
The fact that South Africans were behind the World Cup, including the civil service, had also help keep the event on track.
There was also "very tight" monitoring of the progress on route to the opening ceremony of the World Cup.
"Because the World Cup had a finite date, if you saw whoever wasn't delivering, even if it was an outside contractor, some of the contracts had to be cancelled, because you can't get anywhere like that," said Dlamini Zuma.
She pointed to the new infrastructure such as roads, rail and airports, that would which help facilitate increased economic growth in the future.
"I think the World Cup has taught us one thing - that it is possible to achieve these things if we are united and put enough effort in and monitor it," said Dlamini Zuma.
