Murder in Durban revives World Cup fears

South Africa is getting closer to its day of destiny when it hosts the FIFA World Cup in 2010, and as the country strives to clean up some sticky issues before the thousands of tourists arrive for the tournament, the recent shooting of an Austrian man on a golf course in Durban has shown that the country’s violent tendencies are not so easily contained.

Violence is one of the main concerns for visiting football fans for the World Cup, and although the murdered man was not part of the 3,000-person FIFA delegation in the country to undertake the World Cup draw, the incident has nonetheless rekindled fears of safety.

Police have begun an extensive search, saying that the Austrian was shot in the chest while on the course at the Selbourne Estate country club, a property protected by electric fencing.

The statistics of 50 killings a day in South Africa were brought up, as FIFQ president Sepp Blatter reminded media that the man was not connected in any way to the FIFQ delegation. Still, one wonders how incidents such as this will affect the number of visitors to South Africa come 2010.