For South Africa the World Cup 2010 is much more than a great soccer party.

It is the moment when Africa stands tall, and resolutely turns the tide of centuries of poverty and conflict. Above all it will finally wipe away the shame of apartheid.

But at the same time the cost of the World Cup has exploded. The investments were budgeted at a few million. The real cost will be a thousandfold ; 3 to 5 billion. And that in a country where a large part of the population still lives in deep poverty.

Senior foreign affairs correspondent Bernard Hammelburg thinks the country has seriously overstretched itself. A party with a price tag of 3 percent of the GNP is simply too expensive for South Africa .