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PANDEMONIUM broke out with people screaming for joy and others running uncontrollably around the EPRFU stadium on Saturday when South Africa was announced the winner of the bid to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
Watching the announcement on a giant screen, an estimated 20 000 soccer lovers erupted into a united “Shosholoza” and Mexican waves.
An electric atmosphere was also witnessed at the president’s suite, where leading politicians Premier Nosimo Balindlela and metro Mayor Nceba Faku were seated side by side.
When asked how he felt just after the announcement, Mr Faku could not respond to The Herald and lifted his South African flag, and shouted “viva Mandela” as the former president appeared on the big screen.
A barefoot Mrs Balindlela, in traditional garb, was sitting next to Sport MEC Nomsa Jajula when Fifa president Sepp Blatter pulled the name South Africa from the envelope. The Premier kissed Mrs Jajula in celebration.
Carrying the South African flag, with her bodyguards in tow, Mrs Balindlela ran onto the pitch and crossed to the other side, shouting through a microphone “Viva South Africa”.
Mr Faku jumped up and shouted: “We have won it, we have won, we won it for Africa.”
This was followed by an African Champions League clash between Orlando Pirates and Malawi’s Bakili Bullets.
Pirates did not disappoint the happy crowd, which had at this stage grown to 28 000 and beat the bullets 2-1.
Before the Pirates match, municipal officials played against their pot-bellied councillors and beat them 1-0 through a goal scored by spokesman Roland Williams.
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