Every night, when Louis Dubazana sits in a bus driving past Soccer City toward his apartment in Soweto, the look of the rusty-colored dome over the stadium fills him with pride. When other passengers also marvel at the World Cup stadium, it is just too much for him. The junior foreman has to tell everyone he helped build the new symbol of South Africa.
``Other people were saying: 'Hey this is a big thing. Ooh, it is this and that.' That makes me feel great,'' Dubazana said. ``I was part of the people working here.''
The 94,000-seat Soccer City Stadium often had more than 3,000 people working on it at the same time and, despite mistrust that it would never be finished on time, it will be in prime condition for Friday's opener between South Africa and Mexico.
And if the stadium itself is living proof of the legacy of the World Cup, the confidence and pride of the 32-year-old Dubazana point toward something more important: a nation put to the task came through with iconic new stadiums from Soccer City to Cape Town and Durban.
The businessmen and political officials will take center stage from now on. But for a long time, progress was only assured by men and women in multicolored hardhats working long hours and days to meet the deadlines.
Such is construction in South Africa that Dubazana finds the time and money only once a month to get home for a weekend with his wife Nelisiwe and two daughters about 240 kilometers (149 miles) away in Amersfoort, in the poor province of Mpumalanga.
Still, this is progress compared to the days of apartheid, when black workers were denied a decent education and good jobs.
Now, Dubazana is only half a year away in his studies from becoming a construction supervisor. After Soccer City, he went to the headquarters of the LTA-Grinaker company to work at the glass facade division, where he supervises 20 workers.
That is a far cry from his first job in construction, as a storeman checking the quality of cement and other materials.
With the global financial crisis hitting construction like much else, the future is less secure than a few years ago. But Dubazana, as so many others in South Africa, has one thing in ample supply - optimism.
The government has already spoken of redirecting public works in the wake of the World Cup to hospitals and schools. Some companies have to look farther beyond in Africa to find new opportunities. Beyond his conviction that there will be work for him, Dubazana says that he has ``no idea what to do next, no idea at the moment.''
First priority though, is to see firsthand his stadium in action. When works were slowed at several stadiums because of strikes, FIFA president Sepp Blatter went out of his way to promise tickets to each of the 27,000 workers at the venue they helped build.
Dubazana has two for Argentina's match against South Korea at Soccer City.
``Those are good teams, two teams that play,'' he said. Yet the present also came with a tinge of disappointment. Because, like every South African, he wanted to see Bafana Bafana play.
He did not look to buy tickets for South Africa's games, hoping he would receive free tickets. The only time South Africa plays at Soccer City in the first round is the tournament opener on Friday, the second biggest match. No tickets for Dubazana there.
``I was going to look for Bafana Bafana, but we were promised that we will get the tickets for free,'' he said. ``I didn't look to buy the tickets until they were all sold out. I was disappointed.''
Instead he will be watching the South African games at his apartment in Soweto. When he ponders the suggestion of watching it in a bar, he burst out laughing.
``Sometimes I work the following day,'' he said.
If the World Cup has already given him some of the best work in his career, he still has a special project to come. He is convinced South Africa will win the cup on July 11, leaving him with one more assignment.
``We must start making a building only for the World Cup trophy. We are going to keep it here.''
