Regular readers may be aware that I was fortunate enough to spend four amazing years in South Africa, from 2000 to 2004. I remember vividly driving along Constantia Main Road on the afternoon of 15 May 2004, listening to Sepp Blatter on the radio as he announced that South Africa would host the football World Cup on 2010.

The moment the announcement was made, you could hear the cheers. And yes, there were Vuvuzelas.

Way back then, though, the Vuvuzela was a local curiosity. Manufactured (mainly) in Khayelitsha by Masincedane Sport, and I’m sure I remember reading of all sorts of schemes to make them out of recycled plastic bags and PET bottles. The South Africans are ingenious like that.

Fast forward six years … your ‘proudly South African’ vuvuzela is, more likely as not, manufactured in China from all new plastic. And whilst Masincedane still make the ‘Proudly South African’ Vuvuzela, Neil van Schalkwyk, the man behind it all, has branched out into earplugs.

Progress?