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The captains, the kings (presidents) and their glitterati have departed. We are no longer a remote corner of the globe best known for apartheid and the gap between the rich and the poor. Although we still have some problems to iron out, we have proved that we can successfully host the biggest sporting event. May the fall-out in publicity, however, bring us much joy in tourism, fresh capital and new industries to fill the empty tummies and shelter the homeless, perhaps even a few more cents per litre for our embattled dairy producers.

As far as farming is concerned, the vuvuzelas may very well have been singing the plaintive song of thousands of tortured cows and their owners faced with a bleak future of land reform. While we’re divvying up land ownership, how about selling big dairy processors a 40% share in the miseries of our fast-declining dairy farms, so that their shareholders can also feel the pain of reduced milk prices at the coal face? What will the World Cup profit them, if we eventually run out of milk and amasi?

Bafana Bafana fought bravely for what thousands of vuvuzelas could never cure. Some referees took the inexplicable decisions and our non-sporting national team demonstrated that we still have some lessons to learn. However, even they could not ruin an excellent event.

At least, our international friends now recognise us as a wonderful, warm and embracing nation who have shown what can be achieved if we work together for the common good. We can be the rainbow nation, if we take whatever benefits we can from the FIFA World Cup and use it to prioritise education, skills training and increased productivity. With it will come expansion in industry and infrastructure, job creation and hope for the poor.

No matter what the boys in the red T-shirts say, there is no silver bullet to cure poverty. Failed communist regimes around the world have proved just that. The destruction of private wealth and property, massive government grants and handouts, devaluing our currency or lowering interest rates will merely tip us further into the ditch.

Banks will generally agree that a democratic state has a responsibility to protect property rights and the fruits of the labour of individual citizens. This is not only a constitutional requirement but also the foundation of our economic system, the basis of all collateral loans. Agrarian reform is not merely necessary but urgent, but we still do not have any real indication of what government has in mind. Furthermore, the country cannot afford to pay people to farm, let alone just occupy the land. A progressive all-embracing form of rural development is imperative.

However, I fear that some of the younger generation are modelling their hopes on Robert Mugabe’s topsy-turvy world. In such a world, experience, training and tradition are cast aside. History is rewritten, as emotion and ideology dictate irrational behaviour. The masses are promised unrealistic rewards in return for political favours and then threaten to take our world into a free fall.

None of this is new. Politically motivated land reform dates back further than Julius Caesar. Our political leaders may not be able to give their chums immense power to sell conquered land abroad, but they can use the excuse of apartheid to reward their insatiable hunger for tenders.

Under this tradition, democracy works well until the majority discover they can vote themselves ever more money regardless of the consequences. With this must go 18% pay rises, extended holidays, housing benefits and other entitlements, cushy jobs, shorter hours, early retirement. If these things do not materialise, just trash available facilities and demand free water, free electricity and flush toilets as a human right.

Emeritus Archbishop Tutu was correct when he welcomed international visitors who came to watch the soccer. He reminded us that regardless of our heritage, we are all Africans under the skin (DNA). We are all descended from African. However, he forgot to mention our primal instinct. We may no longer all be huddled together on the same branch but have not been very good ‘branch managers’ either.

Human greed, ignoring the environment and refusing to deal with reality can drag us back into that cave from which we first emerged. One oil spill may not end the upturn in our economy but we must be wary of politics as a marketing concept of hope and change. Often these concepts are refined for a mindless proletariat and lifelong adolescents.

I sometimes pray that someone would translate or express the astronomical amounts lost through government blunders and graft into ‘houses’ or other public facilities, so that illiterates also know where the real culprits reside. Who will hear the voice of the cows and vuvuzelas crying out in anguish?