In the state we're in, hosting is a game we can no longer afford

Durban's frog-like obstinacy in wanting to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games despite the country's worsening economic woes is, frankly, hard to understand.

The Canadian city of Edmonton pulled out because it could not justify such a huge financial outlay under prevailing economic conditions.

But not Durban. Not South Africa. We're barrelling on regardless. And we're a much poorer economy than Canada.

We've been hosting things from birth and we want to continue doing that, irrespective.

It's like a child who grows up sucking her thumb and enjoying it and therefore cannot let go. In days of yore adults would apply pepper or anything distasteful on the thumb to wean her off it. It's time for some chilli to get us off this hosting bandwagon.

Hosting these grand events may have been heady stuff for a new and starry-eyed nation keen to be serenaded by an appreciative international community.

We had avoided a civil war which everybody had thought was going to be our reality. We wanted to prove to the world - and to ourselves - that we could run things properly, and honestly. South Africa was in good nick and open for business.

We had confounded the sceptics and the doomsayers. And we were beside ourselves with joy. If pulling the country out of the fire and conducting elections that seemed to harness it back to a semblance of good health was akin to a miracle, successfully hosting those events was the icing on the cake. It was a graduation to adulthood.

But we can't keep sucking on that thumb. It's time for a reality check.

In fact, hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup should have been our apogee, our sign-off. We had made our point, if there was a point to be made.

The World Cup should have brought us the respect we craved. We had beaten the big boys to win the rights, and we did a damn good job hosting it, breaking the bank to do it. No expense was spared. Come to think of it, the e-tolls were added into the bargain. They sneaked them in while we were blindsided by the celebrations. Bastards.

But the pat on the back didn't materialise. Things went a bit awry instead. It turned out we hadn't played by the rules.

But then, nobody had. In an organisation as murky as Fifa, rules didn't seem to matter or apply. Money changed hands, which was the norm. Instead of a nation awash with pride, the whole thing has left a bitter taste in the mouth. Our heroes, those who brought us the spectacle, have become villains. We feel cheated.

Why should a self-respecting country willingly bend a knee to a foreign woman with a dysfunctional family?

Durban suggests we haven't learnt the lesson. We cannot afford to spend money that we don't have as if there's no tomorrow. The country is in dire straits. The economy is on life support. Unemployment is the highest it's ever been. We still have pupils being taught under trees.

Now and then in some godforsakenpondokkie a child drops into a pit toilet; or goes to bed without anything to eat every night. The streets have become war zones, with people elbowing and fighting to be heard.

The government insists, and rightly so, that free tertiary education is unaffordable, and yet it's prepared to splurge on a project that's simply nice to have.

That's utterly indefensible, especially at a time when the country is facing massive challenges with ever-diminishing resources at its disposal.

We are a step away from junk status. This awful phrase has been bandied about to such an extent that we've become blasé about what it portends.

It's not nice to be referred to as junk. That's something one tosses into a rubbish bin or a dumping site. And that's difficult to associate with one's own country. But that's what we've come to. What's more, we have a president whose delinquency seems to be willing us into that reality.

But why should we belong to something originally called the British Commonwealth anyway? Why should a self-respecting country willingly bend a knee to a foreign woman with a dysfunctional family? The slave, it seems, is reluctant to leave the outhouse, even after emancipation.

Hendrik Verwoerd pulled the country out of the Commonwealth because it had ceased to serve apartheid's purposes. The new South Africa dived in, with some alacrity, immediately after it got rid of apartheid. And there's one good reason for it.

Belonging to an organisation such as the Commonwealth means more expensive junkets, overseas shopping, free holidays and lucrative stipends for diplomats and their hangers-on. It's the gravy train on steroids.

Hosting the games, or any other international event, opens ample opportunities for tenders for the politically connected. Everybody eats without rousing too much suspicion. There's enough dough to go round.

It's time we snapped out of this world of make-believe and got our priorities right. Most of the population is poor and often faces a bleak future. That's where our attention and resources should be focused. There's no time to play, let alone pay for it.