The Offside Rules

Macras sees Johannesburg as the country’s premier urban landscape representing the space where the evolving story of the New South Africa is most fully played out. The city is representational of both the Utopian dreams of the reconciled Rainbow Nation and the dystopia of an urban space under siege.

Typical of such a growing metropolis is that an integral part of urban society is the divide between the anxious rich and the desperately poor. Patterns of differentiation reinforce structural inequalities deeply integrated in the cityscape – but also reflect an emergent spatial logic governing the organisation of uses and meaning of the urban space after apartheid.

The piece looks at the meeting of characters promoted by the public transportation system and the role of football in politics and economy.
It is not the first time that a soccer World Cup is taking place in a socially or politically charged environment where is may play a role in covering, accelerating or confronting the actual situation in the country. One example would be the 1978 World Cup in Argentina where Macras was born. How does the euphoria of the event concile impossible differences – or accentuate existing conflicts in South Africa? How accessible are its benefits to everybody?

These are the questions at the heart of The Offside Rules which formed part of the event Football Meets Culture programme promoted by the Goethe-Institut, the German Embassy and their partners.