"Internationally, the world cup has rebranded South Africa and disaggregated different African countries, and at the same time changed the way the continent is seen abroad," Matola said, adding that this has had a strong impact on continental branding.
Months prior to the tournament, SA and its motherland Africa fought a great battle of ideas to convince the world that a book should not be judged by its cover but by its contents. And after the tournament ended without any major glitch, the sceptics were convinced that Africa was a victim of an Afro-pessimist campaign.
Matola said: "Brand equity is always about whether the fundamentals are sound. And we have demonstrated that by opening our homes to the world and we have delivered. And for the first time, we got positive publicity from UK media, especially the Guardian newspaper."
He pointed out that the tournament created many ambassadors for SA and Africa, and the host country has had an amazing feedback on social media (Twitter, blogs), with people expressing their complete satisfaction about the unexpected level of services during the tournament.
Before the world cup, SA was ranked 35th in terms of investment destination, but Matola said that ranking index should significantly improve as the country is expected to do well in terms of tourism and investment in the coming months or so.
"During the post-event, there will be a significant improvement the way we are perceived abroad," he said.
More than 1 million foreign visitors came to SA during the world cup, and the country is now aiming at bringing in 2 million arrivals in the next few years.
"We should carry that spirit and take it into service delivery," Matola said.
Nozipho January-Bardill, MTN Group executive corporate affairs, said her company has learned a great deal about sports sponsorship during the world cup. She said MTN has had a marathon experience that started four years ago, with the 2006 and 2008 African Cup of Nations in Egypt and Ghana, respectively.
"If you turn your product into a global brand, you will have to broaden your global football sponsorship - this is what we did, as this was linked to our growth ambitions."
Trevor Fowler, Murray & Roberts executive director for construction cluster, said the world cup had a significant boost on infrastructure and a mitigating effect on the economy downturn. "While the developed world was looking at ways of minimising the effects of the recession, SA had some R800 billion to put into the economy," he said.
"With 13 000 passengers daily on weekdays and 20 000 on weekends, Gautrain is one of the major investment catalysts. And now there are discussions about possible links between Joburg and Durban and even Cape Town."
The panel also included The Star executive editor Janet Smith, 2010 Organising Committee spokesperson Rich Mkhondo and KPMG senior economist Frank Blackmore. The event was facilitated by KPMG's head of audit Devon Duffield.
