South Africa has done it. Foreign newspapers, overseas fans, international leaders and even pessimistic locals are now raving about Africa's first World Cup.

Speaking at the 2010 soccer World Cup education summit in Pretoria yesterday, President Jacob Zuma said: "What an experience it has been for us as a country.

"Africa will never be the same again after this. We should now be judged on merit. We have proved once and for all that we can organise events of any kind," he said.

"We succeeded in hosting the World Cup without glitches because of the work done by the structures put in place and the soccer family of this country. They did a wonderful job."

Fifa president Sepp Blatter agreed: "I have spent seven weeks in this country and in the name of the footballing community may I take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the people of South Africa for a job well done in its organising abilities.

"South Africa has proved to the world that it is able to organise an event of this nature. And the trust that Fifa had put in this country has been answered with a big, big success."

Blatter said that, during the tournament, more than 18000 international journalists had been writing, blogging and broadcasting about South Africa's ability to host a good World Cup.

But commentators have said that now that the country has proved what it can do, it must act in the same determined way to deliver services to its people.

Retired archbishop Desmond Tutu told The Times yesterday: "This has been a wonderful World Cup, but it doesn't negate the fact that the majority of South Africans don't have houses, schools, clinics, running water and many more things.

"If we were able to deliver such a project in just six years, imagine what we could have achieved in 20 years."

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said the bar had been raised and South Africa could not drop below the standards it had set itself.

"Judging by the numbers, particularly our record time of building stadiums, airports and road infrastructure, makes us all ask why we can't use this experience to better the lives of South Africans," Mthembu said.

"This is an experience that has taught us that we can do it. If we could build those stadiums and roads, then we can build houses. This is not about the ANC but about all South Africans. If we all use the methodology of the successful World Cup, in South Africa every day, we will succeed and improve service delivery.

"Our people have shown that we are capable of doing things faster and smarter - so there is no going back now."

Educationist and businesswoman Mamphela Ramphele said the country's ability to excel must be harnessed to deal with crime, education, health and the economy.

Ramphele said: "Why did we need to show the world what we can do? We needed to show ourselves. It is not about the world needing to see what we can do. It was about our lack of self-confidence.

"Now that we have demonstrated that we can rise above a challenge and believe in ourselves, we must use this for a positive future."

National police commissioner General Bheki Cele noted that South Africans will no longer tolerate failure.

He told police, army and metro police officers outside Soccer City yesterday that "the bad thing that you have done is that you have created a standard that you need to maintain".

"Make sure that when the visitors are gone, South Africans are safe. You need to maintain the squeeze on criminals' space and finish their oxygen," Cele said.

The police and justice system have co-operated to produce previously unheard-of results - including the arrest and conviction within a week of armed robbers who held up a Spanish and a Portuguese journalist near Johannesburg.

The Department of Justice recently announced that it will try to incorporate successful aspects of the specially designated World Cup courts into the judicial system.

The success of the tournament has given South Africans the last laugh.

UK newspapers have done an about-turn since British tabloids reported that deadly snakes would attack the England players on their training ground in Rustenburg.

In an editorial headlined "A great nation has finally come of age", the UK's Sunday Independent rated the World Cup an enormous success.

"No snake turned up in Wayne Rooney's locker," the newspaper noted. "The only man-eating lions were in game parks and they're too fastidious to eat an England football fan. And there has barely been a mugger around."