Skirting around this issue is suicidal denialism. Africa is the dark continent, but it is not its intrinsic character. We’ve made it like that due to our greed and corrupt governments. Poor and neglected infrastructure speaks volumes wherever you go on our continent.

The bad conditions of Bahir Dar Stadium in Ethiopia where Bafana Bafana played their qualifying game for Qatar 2022, makes competitive football difficult. Surely, African players are not chameleons who can easily adapt from below-par fields to state-of-the-art stadia in Europe.

Excellent ball passes, marking and control depend on smooth-playing turfs. Government and sport are interdependent and inseparable.

You just can’t have a capable government and a dysfunctional sporting body or vice-versa. I feel sorry for CAF president Patrice Motsepe. African governments need to be fixed before we can know noble sports gurus. No rational thinking investors will throw their money where embezzlement and mismanagement of resources are second nature.

If only Africa can recognise its big undoing, half the problem will have been solved. Cry the beloved Africa!

Thami Zwane, Edenvale, Ekurhuleni