Shaped like a giant traditional cooking bowl, built on disused land where 60 per cent of the world's gold was once mined, Soccer City, the grey steel Johannesburg stadium at the centre of the 2010 World Cup, is preparing to welcome 94,000 people from around the world for the kick-off. It is, for all of Africa, a symbol of enormous pride. Four years after the bitter loss to Germany, South Africa has been awarded the chance to host an event that rivals the Olympics in stirring the passions of billions of people around the world. Yet within South Africa, critics argue that the £2 billion cost should instead be spent on creating jobs, schools and clinics. And overseas, fear is growing that the high crime, violence and political instability may yet force an emergency switch to an alternative venue.

The world football authorities are certainly taking risks in South Africa. Crime is still alarming. Last year there were 18,487 murders, 36,190 rapes, 14,481 home invasions, 14,201 carjackings and 118,312 aggravated robberies. Large areas of the main cities are no-go areas for tourists. Black teenagers, guns in their belts, patrol ghettos within sight of the five renovated and five new stadiums that will be used. Poverty, underinvestment and disease exacerbate tensions. A lack of power generation leads to frequent blackouts in Johannesburg. Aids is still killing thousands. And amid high unemployment, the flood of refugees from Zimbabwe has fuelled xenophobia and led to township riots.

But South Africa is determined to overcome the challenges. Thirteen new generators will be built to guarantee power to the stadiums. Some 200,000 armed police will be on hand to guard the matches. Helicopters and planes will patrol the skies. Around £400 million will be spent improving the country's roads, railways, airports and infrastructure. Slums are being cleared, squatters rehoused and a vast construction effort, creating at least 100,000 jobs, has begun to ensure that the facilities are ready in time.

Indeed, the World Cup is seen as vital in rallying a country in the face of economic uncertainty, political splits and growing impatience among the urban poor at the slow pace of improvements in basic health and education. It appears to be working. The Government can no longer rely on any post-apartheid euphoria to overcome divisions of race or wealth. It can, however, appeal to an intense national sporting pride. Afrikaners have long seen rugby as a basic ingredient of their identity; for English-speakers, cricket has played a similar role. But for the black majority, football has been the escape from poverty and the unifying enthusiasm. One of Nelson Mandela's most famous acts of reconciliation was his early embrace of what was then the overwhelmingly white rugby team. His successors hope that the World Cup can deliver the same symbol of a new, better South Africa.

To rob the country of this goal would be a humiliation with untold consequences. For all the inflated demands of football impresarios and misgivings among some less confident teams, few could now contemplate any sudden switch back to the safer stadiums of Europe, South Korea or Japan. South Africa has a spur like no other to overcome political bickerings and focus aspirations of nation-building. It is one that the country and those preparing to visit should embrace with enthusiasm.