World Cup add R38bn to GDP

The minister added that he is sure all will realise the social and economic benefits that the tournament has been able to provide for SA, as we now earned the reputation of a country that can deliver and that is good for future growth.

According to figures released by the Department of Home Affairs, 1 020 321 people entered SA between June 1 - July 1, 25% more than last year’s 819 415 visitors during the same period.

LOC spokesman Rich Mkhondo said that they are confident that they would reach the 450 000 World Cup visitors initially predicted, as they were expecting more international guests from the semi-final qualifiers' countries during the last stretch of the tournament. This is after FIFA revealed that there were still 700 premier tickets available for each semi final games that were played this week.

But, already reports are emerging that the World Cup was not a boom for all. The Mbombela municipality (which includes towns like Nelspruit, Hazyview, White River, KaNyamazane, Matsulu and Kabokweni) had to dip into their reserve funds as a result of the 2010 Soccer World Cup, News24 reported. They fell into debt in June and had to decide whether to take out a R 57m overdraft facility from Absa or deny their 1 400 staff and council members their salaries as they did not have the R30m to pay the monthly salaries. Two of the main reasons for their financial situation were the large outstanding residential debt and the extravagant spending related to the World Cup. The council's financial obligation for June was more than R 280m.

FIFA expects an income of $3.2bn (R24.7bn) from the event, with 75% of this revenue going towards the development of soccer. The SA government allowed FIFA to avoid a number of tax regulations – they do not have to pay any VAT, income tax, customs tax or import and export taxes on FIFA goods.