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Pretoria, 20.05.2010. The World Cup 2010 is an opportunity to showcase South Africa and celebrate what the country has to offer in terms of tourist destinations, infrastructure and the overall South African cultural experience. However, May, June and July, coined the ‘winter of discontent´, has traditionally been a time of strikes and protest action as workers attempt to negotiate higher salary increases during a period of collective bargaining; considering that 4,31-million South Africans are unemployed (Stats SA, 2010), the winter months also tend to coincide with housing and service delivery protests.

Media Tenor analysis indicates that coverage on protest action has been building since the beginning of the year reaching levels of 100 reports and above which is far earlier than was observed in either 2007, 2008 or 2009; additionally, focus has shifted from unions and government to the social reasons behind protest action such as inequality and poverty which has comprised 40% of reportage on protest action since January 2010. “Speaking from a media perspective, there has been a great deal of apprehension about South Africa hosting the World Cup”, says Media Tenor South Africa MD Wadim Schreiner. “There is, of course, a preconceived idea of Africa and, as a result, a great deal of scepticism around whether South Africa can pull it off; any protest or strike action will therefore receive an especially high level of traction in international media”.

The negative ramifications of protest action is confirmed by the negative tone of reporting on companies and organizations which are the targets of protest action, as well as the leadership of the country, namely government and government organisations. The danger inherent in these coming months is that international media will be intensely scrutinising South Africa and the tournament´s organization; currently, society is the weak point in South Africa´s media profile after widespread reporting on the President´s polygamy and extra-marital affairs and recent speculation on whether the World Cup will have any lasting benefit for the poor in South Africa. As Tibet hijacked media coverage ahead of the Beijing Olympic with its protest action, so too can South African protesters elevate their plight through the media. However, this protest action can have negative consequences for the image of the country as a whole, and South African protesters may end up highlighting their plight at the expense of the image of the country they depend upon.

This analysis focused on 4,621 reports with the main theme being either strikes, protests or social unrest during the period 01/01/2006 through 30/04/2010. The media set included: eNews Prime Time, SABC Africa News Update, SABC Afrikaans News, SABC English News, SABC News @ 10, SABC News @1, SABC SiSwati/Ndebele News, SABC Sotho News, SABC Venda/Tsonga News, SABC Zulu/Xhosa News, Metro FM, Motsweding, Radio 702, SA FM, Ukhozi.

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