SIX years ago the Fairy Godmother - in the guise of Sepp Blatter - waved a magic wand, and announced that South Africa had been chosen to host the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

For the first time in history, Africa - the Cinderella continent - had been chosen to host the world's premier sporting event.

Mind you, had it not been for a little legerdemain and the mysterious voting of the Fifa representative from Oceana, South Africa - and not Germany - would have hosted the preceding World Cup in 2006.

So, in 2004, it was Africa's turn. Blatter had all but promised that no more ugly First World stepsisters would be permitted to jump the queue.

From that moment the countdown started.

The world was sceptical. We heard again the old familiar choruses that precede all major global sporting events, wherever they are held: the stadiums would not be ready; security was inadequate; the infrastructure of airports, railways and roads would simply not be able to cope.

Despite all this, Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of the 2010 local organising committee, and his team made steady progress.

Magnificent new stadiums were built - and old ones were renovated and refurbished. New highways and rapid transit systems were constructed.

South Africa's airports were expanded and modernised. After years of being cocooned in hoardings and scaffolds, Cape Town's new international airport emerged just before the World Cup like a gigantic crystal butterfly.

In our major cities large clocks counted down the days to the opening match on June 11.

Government, opposition, business, religious and civil society leaders embraced one another and exhorted the nation to make a success of the event.

Unprecedented security arrangements were made and special courts were established to dispense swift justice to law-breakers.

In the process, South Africans also learned that the Fifa fairy godmother was not motivated solely by altruism. She made it clear that she - and she alone - would choose Cinderella's ball gown and accessories. Apparently unconcerned about any practical implications, Blatter insisted that Cape Town Stadium should be built in Green Point - because he thought it would look pretty with Table Mountain as its backdrop. The city would rather have upgraded the existing Newlands Stadium - or built a new stadium at Culembourg, close to existing rail and road routes.

Nevertheless, it worked.

For a glorious month South Africans laid down the burden of our divided history and joined one another in a magnificent national festival.

Once we had been knocked out, South Africans switched their allegiance to Africa's best remaining hope, Ghana.

But, as with all fairy tales, the clock struck at 12. Cinderella had to scurry down the palace steps, and confront again the harsh realities of our national life. The party was over.

Our national attention shifted from the empty stadiums to the continuing poverty and inequality in which too many South Africans live. The vuvuzelas were silent.

Nevertheless, during those four weeks we had changed international perceptions of our country.

Unfortunately, since then South Africans have been attracting attention for all the wrong reasons. On the soccer field of international opinion we have been resolutely scoring one own goal after another.

The situation is now back to normal.

Cinderella is back in the kitchen, sitting on the ash-heap. The Fifa fairy godmother has flown off to her next assignment in Brazil. The Afro-pessimists have returned in strength, confident that South Africa's World Cup success was just a flash in the pan.

But South Africans have been much more realistic than that. We did not expect that the World Cup would change the underlying realities of South Africa - and it did not.

By the same token, all these developments have not undermined the strengths that made the World Cup success possible. I am confident that we will once again prove the pessimists wrong.

The glorious weeks of the World Cup are receding further into our collective memory - but some things will remain:

• Including our ability to compete with the best in the world;
• Including the world-class infrastructure that was created for the event; and
• Including the natural beauty and the warmth and hospitality of our people that the World Cup has introduced to hundreds of millions of potential tourists.

As we all know, Cinderella, in her headlong flight down the palace steps, left something of her magic behind in the form of the crystal slipper that was retrieved by Prince Charming. The Fifa World Cup left us with a similar magic legacy: it is the shining vision of the brilliant, multifaceted nation we can and will become.

The writer is apartheid South Africa's last state president. This is an extract of a speech he made at a dinner for politicians and business leaders in London.