Matthew Lester: We are less than two months away from the kickoff of what is punted as the greatest sporting event South Africa will see in our lifetime. Even SA Breweries' share price went up because we are going to drink so much that sin taxes will help narrow the public deficit.

Taxpayers have paid R33-billion for the party to date, and heaven knows what the final claims will total. The indirect costs as a nation caught up in roadblocks for three years will never be quantified. And Fifa, its non-SA officials, even the referees, will enjoy an income tax and exchange control exemption for gracing us with the privilege of paying for the party.

But we have completed those stadiums everyone said would never get built in time. Soccer City, outside Johannesburg, is so big it could accommodate all the applicants for the child grant during the World Cup, 90-something thousand. The rest could each hold all those who will contract HIV during the cup - 40-something thousand. But only a few of them will be visitors, so nobody gives a damn.

The stadiums will be cordoned off so that our informal sector can't sell anything resembling an African theme to tourists. Meanwhile, the mascot is manufactured in a Chinese sweatshop that is about as African as Malema's watch.

All of this I can understand. It's all about brand, bucks and image. So shut up and enjoy the show.

The doorbell goes. No, this time it's not the kids looking for money to buy the school books that my tax should have paid for. And they don't want aspirin or Dettol and a wire brush. No, the clinic hasn't run out this week.

"We in the township also want to see the World Cup. But there's nothing. Not unless you want to go to the shebeen." Now that's fine for tax collections, but not the sort of encouragement we are supposed to give kids under 18.

"What about the public viewing areas? Well, they are 60km away. A R50 taxi fare. Each way!"

By my estimate, using modern technology, I can kit out the local community centre hall with a projector, painted wall, PVR and a sound system for less than R10000. And that will get a few hundred to the World Cup. That's not so bad if one considers that it's estimated that the hotel bills for the World Cup will come to about R12-billion.

Six years ago, we took it that the World Cup was going to the people of Africa. I think they are coming up short.

Not an hour in my life passes without hearing the word "Malema". And some ask, "Why do the youth follow him?" My answer to that is: "Perhaps he is the only entertainment on offer in a township today. There isn't much competition. Other than another Aids funeral, that is."

Lester is a professor at Rhodes University, Grahamstown