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While South Africa has good reason to be optimistic about its ability to host the 2010 Fifa World Cup, doubts still linger in the minds of the international media, says International Marketing Council of SA (IMC) chief executive Yvonne Johnston.

"Old stereotypes die hard," Johnston told hundreds of newspaper editors from around the world at the World Association of Newspapers conference in Cape Town this week.

Speaking at a luncheon hosted by the IMC, Johnston answered the doubters by saying that South Africans had established an unbeatable track record for "fixing what others have written off as terminally broken, and for finding solutions where others have despaired."

Not many outside observers believed South Africans would come together the way they did in 1994, Johnston noted - some had even predicted a bloodbath; but South Africans in their millions turned out to vote in the country's first democratic elections, and apartheid passed away peacefully.

The International Airline Transport Association's AGM recently took place in Vancouver. Delegates at the AGM heard that the airport companies for Johannesburg International (i.e. ACSA), Auckland, Sydney, Hong Kong and Seoul have returned profit margins of more than 40%; and at the same time the cost saving initiatives which airlines have implemented have been wiped out by the high costs airports are charging for landing. According to Giovanni Bisignani (IATA director general and CEO), ?Too many airports still operate as happy monopolies?. This is certainly the case in South Africa, where ACSA makes massive profits, whilst baggage handling is slow and ground equipment is often not ready by the time aircrafts have landed. Not that ACSA should be blamed, they're simply doing what any monopolist would do - it is the responsibility of government to instil a competitive environment in airport management.

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Apartheid and lack of resources are no longer justifiable arguments to defend mediocrity, Education Minister Naledi Pandor told Parliament this week, urging South Africans to choose excellence and reject mediocrity for the sake of "nation building, socio-economic development and true liberation".

Delivering the Department of Education's budget speech in Parliament in Cape Town on Tuesday, Pandor said mediocrity in South Africa was being supported by "unjustifiable arguments".

"Some cite apartheid," the minister said. "I acknowledge that the legacy of apartheid continues to affect us, but it no longer serves to explain continued failures on our part.

"Others cite inadequate resources. Yet this is also no longer a persuasive argument."

KwaZulu Natal youngsters marched against crime

An initiative against crime and violence in Durban brought home the shocking effect crime has on the country's most vulnerable citizens.

Thousands of children from schools in the Amanzimtoti area have described in letters how their lives were changed by crime. These were presented at a protest march today, as International Children's Day was also celebrated.

Over a 1 000 letters were received, many addressed to President Thabo Mbeki. The young citizens hope the authorities will take heed.

Tony Blair, the outgoing British prime minister, says he fully supports efforts by President Thabo Mbeki and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to mediate a solution for Zimbabwe.

Blair says there must be a regional solution to Zimbabwe's economic and political crisis. The British leader held bilateral talks with Mbeki at the conclusion of his two-day official visit to South Africa. The bilateral meeting at the Union Buildings allowed Mbeki to update Blair on his mediating efforts in Zimbabwe. Blair says the only thing that mattered was the plight of Zimbabwe's people.

The two leaders discussed trade and political relations between the two nations. Developments around the African continent and the G8 summit next week featured high on the agenda and climate change. Blair is wrapping up his farewell tour to Africa today. The United Kingdom is the largest investor in South Africa with about R175 billion worth of investment.

World at critical point
Blair says the world stands at a critical point with regard to Africa's development and climate change. Blair says that while the world's industrialised nations have fulfilled some promises to Africa, they can do a lot more. He also says that for the first time, the world has an opportunity to strike a global agreement on climate change that would include the United States.

For a moment, the green lawns of the Union Buildings were almost invisible in the thick white cloud of gun powder. The Presidential Guard of Honour and Defence Force saluted Blair, who has been in the thick of international developments for 10 years. Mbeki thanked Blair for his bold stance on Africa. At the G8 summit meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, two years ago, Blair was instrumental in getting the industrialised nations to commit to greater assistance for Africa.

Mbeki says it would be a good farewell present for Blair, if the G8 leaders accelerated their undertakings at their meeting in Germany next week. Blair says a lot had happened since the Gleneagles meeting, but much more could be done. He acknowledged US president George Bush's call for the world's major economies to agree on long-term targets to curb greenhouse gasses.

Blair's visit provided a glimpse of the line that he is likely to take on Africa and climate change at the upcoming G8 meeting. That gathering will be Blair's last key international engagement before he steps down on June 27.