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The People's Bus will bring the magic of
football to remote areas of the country, generating excitement around the World
Cup.
WHAT would be the end result if you were to
put two foosball tables, a stage, a generator, a mic, a music system, a 10-seater
cinema complete with 42cm plasma screen and DVD player, eight ordinary bus
seats and an Astroturf carpet, all on a bus?
The comfortable interior of the People's Bus
Brand South Africa and MAN Bus and Coaches
have created the People's Bus, a single-decker coach bus which is comfortably
equipped for long journeys and furnished with these amenities. It was
officially unveiled on Friday, 19 February at the MAN Bus and Coaches plant in
Olifantsfontein, northeast of Joburg.
The People's Bus was built to garner support
for Bafana Bafana ahead of the World Cup, mobilise every citizen and ratchet up
excitement for the June tournament. The idea is to encourage everyone to support
the country and the national team.
It will add to Football Friday and Fly the
Flag for Football, campaigns that are already up and running.
Yellow is the predominant colour of the
bus, boosted by a myriad of colours and images, some of football-mad supporters
hoisting the colours of their national flags. It has the national anthem at its
back, and a Bafana player kicking a ball.
"All in all, the edutainment People's Bus
aims to entertain through music, dance, competitions and its digital World Cup
experience," says Brand South Africa.
It took about six weeks to create,
organisers said. It was converted from an ordinary 64-seater bus, and is fully
furnished with recreational and educational amenities. It can carry 20 passengers
at a time. In it are brief histories of all the qualifying teams and passengers
are asked to write messages of support for Bafana, which will be printed on the
Brand South Africa and Bafana Bafana websites.
Campaigns
Paul Bannister, the acting chief executive of Brand South Africa, said the idea
for the bus sprung from a partnership between the public and the private sectors;
it was an auxiliary campaign of Football Friday and Fly the Flag for Football.
Celebrating Football Fridays
"We brought in the idea of Football Friday
[which] reminds you every Friday that the World Cup is coming and challenges
you to say ‘What can I do for the World Cup?' and also ‘What can the World Cup
do for me?' The limitation we've had so far with Football Friday is we've got
to the government, we've got to big corporates, we've got to people in the
cities, but we haven't got to people in all the small parts of South Africa,
where there are people with passion for the game of football and love of the
country," he said.
Bannister noted that the bus would travel
to far-flung areas, where initiatives like Football Friday had had limits. "And
that's now a possibility and I get very excited when I see the People's Bus, I
think it's extraordinary. We've now got a vehicle, literally that can take us
right through to the World Cup."
Not all South Africans would be able to
watch a live match at a stadium, he cautioned. "Recognising this, Brand South
Africa has created this mobile, edutainment World Cup experience that [will
bring] the fun, excitement and overall spirit of the tournament to as many
communities as possible during the duration of the road show," he explained.
People will be allowed to hop on to the
bus, watch short documentaries on football and the diski dance on the plasma
screen, participate in football clinics, play mini foosball tournaments and
stand a chance to win The People's Trophy.
"There are moments that change the way life
is, and one of those moments is coming up on 11 June - it's only 16 Football
Fridays away. There is no doubt that we can use the World Cup to change the way
the world looks at South Africa and build ourselves into a more competitive
country, and if we get to be a more competitive country that means that incomes
go up, it means more jobs are created, it means we steal market share from
other countries."
Bannister said the biggest legacy of the World
Cup would be in the way South Africans could turn it into a spring board.
First stop
After an excited and noisy unveiling to bus company workers, journalists and
others, the bus made its first stop at a primary school in Tembisa, to the east
of Johannesburg; it then travelled north to Tshwane. The bus will tour the
entire country, making its first Joburg stop at the Schools Rugby Festival and
the Rand Easter Show.
The vuvuzelas: loud, proud and oh so South African
There will be road shows in every province until
11 June, the kickoff date of the World Cup. It is estimated that the bus will
travel to approximately 50 locations nationwide, including to remote areas like
Upington, Bisho and Ulundi. It will stop in Soweto on 29 May, before driving
down to the Comrades Marathon in KwaZulu-Natal.
According to the International Marketing
Council, the custodians of Brand South Africa, the People's Bus will take
citizens "on a thrilling, interactive journey, complete with 2010 FIFA World
Cup™ team facts, foosball table fun and a mini cinema showing unforgettable
moments from previous tournaments".
Ray Karshagen, the chief executive of MAN, felt
proud to have been a part of creating such a vehicle for the South African
public. "I'm very proud to be part of the team that is responsible for making
us proud South Africans come 11 June and this is very much an integral part of
that programme to create awareness through the country. I think the bus is
going to be a real winner out there."
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