Last night Twitterers and Facebookers declared June 16 a national day of mourning as South Africa lost 3-0 to Uruguay at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.
Vuvuzelas were quiet and cheering died down as people left the stadium, pubs and fan parks. Some even walked out of the stadium early.
People like myself who aren’t die-hard soccer fans were also sad; I quite literally held back the tears as I left the pub with my friends.
Yes, South Africa may have lost that match and disappointed lots of fans, but this is not the end, is it?
We are still hosting one of the biggest sporting events in the world and so far we have welcomed and treated our guests with warmth and grace. No-one can take that away from us.
We are the first African country to host the World Cup and that can’t be changed either.
We have made history, have built state-of-the-art stadiums and infrastructure, and the spirit of ubuntu is something that we still carry with us.
We all stumble and fall sometimes. But let us pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off.
We still need to be great hosts to our visitors and hold our heads up high.
Take the example of Orlando Pirates: they haven’t won a league match in a long time, but you don’t see their fans supporting them any less.
Let’s not burn our shirts, throw away our vuvuzelas or take down the flags on our cars just yet. This is not the end. We might’ve been defeated, but we are not disgraced.
Let’s encourage our boys to play as though it was the World Cup Final this Tuesday.
So say it with me: “Bafana… Bafana Bafana! Ke nakoooooooooooo!”