Thebe Mabanga and Ntuthuko Maphumulo It took R60-million, four years training, a 14-hour flight and one month down under for the South African Olympic heroes to return with only five medals. On Thursday they were welcomed at the Civic Theatre by a few invited guests, a clutch of curious bystanders and some Johannesburg municipality employees hanging from office windows. Their tour through the streets of Johannesburg was a monumental flop, rivalled perhaps by only the Olympic effort itself. The highlight of their return was at the airport, where a crowd of family members and hangers-on were in attendance. At the Civic Theatre, the crowd -which would have struggled to fill a minibus – were entertained by the St Stithians Boys’ Choir, who were palpably excited by the sight of St Dominic’s drum majorettes. After the ticker-tape bus broke down, the Olympians were first transferred to a closed bus, and not the open-top variety originally favoured. Perhaps it was an attempt to protect them from missile pelting bystanders. But when no one pitched, another open-topped bus was commandeered. So they made it half an hour later than scheduled to a muted reception. The athletes made superficial attempts at smiling and could not wait to go home and lick their wounds.
The event reaffirmed the Civic Theatre’s reputation foremost forum of anticlimax. It was, after all, only in July that it hosted the Johannesburg leg of the ill-fated 2006 Soccer World Cup bid announcement.