In June and July 2010, Joseph Blatter will finally achieve his long-standing goal of bringing the FIFA World Cup to South Africa as a country and Africa as a continent. Joseph Blatter proudly spearheaded the campaign to bring the World Cup to South Africa and Africa in order to make it work for some of the most disadvantaged people of the world. It is important that ordinary people know and pay homage to the critical role played by this distinguished fellow in delivering the prestigious FIFA World Cup tournament to our country and continent.

The following words were said by Steve Biko in 1971: “We reject the power-based society of the Westerner that seems to be ever concerned with perfecting their technological know-how while losing out on their spiritual dimension. We believe that in the long run the special contribution to the world by Africa will be in this field of human relationship. The great powers of the world may have done wonders in giving the world an industrial and military look, but the great gift still has to come from Africa – giving the world a more human face.”

Steve Biko`s words above are a timeless challenge to Africans everywhere to step forward with courage and build their continent. There will not be many better opportunities to present Africa to the world as a continent of progress and success than during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in our own country, South Africa. We should rejoice that FIFA has as its leader at this point in history a man who understands how power works.

Joseph Blatter is not by any means among the most educated people on earth, yet he ranks without doubt among the most learned ones. And he is probably not among the cleanest. Yet he is certainly among the most courageous. His antagonists from the materially richer regions of our world have pursued him with allegations of corruption from day one, because they fear his sense of justice and palpable capacity for good.

May people are not aware that Joseph Blatter worked hard to bring the FIFA World Cup to Africa long before he became president of the organisation. They think all he did was to say no when some crazy but powerful people wanted to take it away from us on some flimsy excuses long after it had become ours. Joseph Blatter made bringing the FIFA World Cup to Africa one of the primary missions of his life and prepared well for it. That is part of the reason why his enemies who woke up yesterday to the news of the World Cup already on the way to Africa can do nothing to stop it. This was yet another classic case of privileged people sleeping through a revolution.

FIFA itself, like any organisation in world with a lot of power, is not clean and was used to serve the privileged parts of the universe since its first tournament in 1934 without many of the complaints we hear today. The antagonists of Joseph Blatter are prepared to keep quiet about the imperfections of FIFA and its leaders when it services their favourite parts of the world. They find every excuse to raise false alarms when it reaches out to disadvantaged people. Sadly for them and fortunately for us, Joseph Blatter has not just studied and mastered the subject of power but he has demonstrated incredible ability to put his learning into practice.

Joseph Blatter said the following words after the decision to discontinue the rotation system was made: “The rotation system has served its purpose and has enabled us to award our most prestigious competition to Africa for the first time and, depending on tomorrow`s decision, to South America for the first time in many years.”

Joseph Blatter is among the very few people on the world stage who know that democracy is judged on both process and outcome. He knows that whereas form is not unimportant, it cannot substitute for substance. He knows that whereas postulating from the pulpit has its merits, toiling in the trenches is what really makes a difference. He knows that organisations have no lives except for the lives of people within them. He knows that organisations have no way of doing good except for the deliberate good deeds of people within them, especially those in leadership positions.

The story of Joseph Blatter is a shining example of how the world can rid itself of the injustices built over centuries within international institutions. Whether we like it or not, the resources of the world have been distributed in a lopsided and unfair way throughout the centuries using many winner-takes-all approaches based on military power, political subjugation, economic exploitation, cultural annihilation, intellectual disempowerment, spiritual disorientation. etc.

We trust that Joseph Blatter, assisted admittedly by the talents and sacrifices of many honourable people, of whom our own Nelson Mandela is chief, has set a blueprint on the world stage for a courageous epoch of enlightenment and justice. We trust that other leaders within powerful international institutions such as the United Nations, which is fast approaching 2015 without having made much progress with its Millennium Developmental Goals, will take a leaf out of his book.

The Word Economic Forum and the International Monetary Fund are other institutions whose leaders can learn from the inspired leadership of Joseph Blatter. We also hope the economic and political shake-ups in major countries such as the US, the UK, Greece, etc, will provide further evidence that well-known human frailties such as greed, incompetence, irresponsibility and plain corruption are not the lot of poor people or countries alone.

The world will always depend on men and women who understand how power works to make sure it is used creatively and positively before it starts to become a force of evil or it does irreversible evil or damage. In our own country, we trust that government and business leaders can jettison their feeble efforts and embrace the art of using courageous engagement to dismantle the edifices of injustice once and for all.

Although many organisations sing the mantra of diversity and mutual respect, they are festering with inbreeding, hoarding and self-interest and reduce many of their stakeholders to toyitoying beyond locked gates. The world requires more and more learned men of courage who understand how power works and who can purposefully seek it, find it and use it to reverse the incalculable injustices of our times.

The world and nations everywhere require courageous people who will work knowledgeably from within organisations to ensure that the fine features of their organisations are sustained when those locked outside by greed and self-interest start pushing for opportunity and real change. Joseph Blatter himself, by his own admission, was inspired by Nelson Mandela, who is a world acclaimed icon on the use of power to free mankind from mankind.

Many people are made uncomfortable by the abrasive style of Joseph Blatter, which is evident especially when there are people who want to stand in the path of what he considers to be right. What many people do not quite understand is that the abrasiveness comes from his understanding of how power and privilege work. He knows that many people are cocooned in privilege and that enlightened abrasiveness or stubbornness is the most appropriate antidote against that, especially if, as a leader, he wants to do justice and see progress within the lifetimes of his beneficiaries.

Many educated people have mastered articulation and eloquence at the expense sincerity and delivery. Many uneducated people we see and meet in our lives do not interpret language but behaviour. As educated people learn more and more words, the uneducated people watch more and more behaviour. The greatest enemy of education and progress is not the uneducated but the educated themselves who fail to match their eloquence with behaviour.

Maybe we should recall words from yet another eminent citizen of the world, namely Emperor Haile Selassie, an African colossal who played a pivotal role in ensuring that colonialism never came to Ethiopia:

“I assert that the issue before the Assembly today is not merely a question of the settlement in the matter of Italian aggression. It is a question of collective security; of the very existence of the League, of the trust placed by states in international treaties; of the value of promises made to small states that their integrity and independence shall be respected and assured. In a word, it is international morality that is at stake.”

Haile Selassie was appealing in vain to the League of Nations to intervene. Whatever their reasons were on the fateful day of 30 June 1936, the leaders assembled in Geneva never intervened and the emperor was to be exiled from his country for five years. For various reasons, the issue of the FIFA World Cup allocation has become an issue of international morality.

Joseph Blatter and his lieutenants inside and outside of FIFA have shown the world that they are friends of Africa and the disadvantaged people of the world. The best way Africans in general, and South Africans in particular, can honour the great act of leadership on the part of Joseph Blatter is to ensure we have a successful 2010 FIFA World Cup. This journey of success must be championed by Bafana Bafana delivering credible performances from the pitch. We must all play our humble parts and pray for African success.

Gibson Sakong

Executive Chairman – Montshepetja Academy