Dr Nik Eberl is the founder and executive chair: The Future of Jobs Summit™ (Official T20 Side Event). He is also the author of Nation of Champions: How South Africa won the World Cup of Destination Branding).
Two weeks before the opening match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, something extraordinary happened in Soweto. Orlando Stadium hosted a Super Rugby match between the Lions and the Sharks - the first major professional rugby match ever played in a South African township.
Thousands of rugby supporters, many of them visiting Soweto for the first time, streamed into the township wearing their team colours.
For many, it was a journey into a community they had previously known only through newspaper headlines and television reports.
What they discovered surprised them. Instead of fear, they found hospitality. Instead of division, they found celebration. Instead of the South Africa they had imagined, they encountered the South Africa they had never experienced.
