With the Fifa 2010 World Cup around the corner, soccer enthusiasts around the world are preparing for this exciting event. Apart from having their vuvuzela ready for the stadium, the latest in supporters 'wear' is the Makoya Makaraba fan hat.

Traditionally worn with pride by soccer fans, these decorated hard hats are uniquely sculptured and hand painted. They add to the visual excitement in the stadiums of every sports event to which they are worn. Together with the vuvuzela they are "Loudly South African" in colour and design and are available for the world to enjoy.

The word Makaraba originally referred to the local term for mine workers who went away to seek work at the mines. Later the term was used for the hard hats wore by the miners and then for the hats wore by fans to soccer games. Today the term is used to describe the decorative headgear wore at soccer games and the hats are not as plain as they used to be, thanks to Michael Souter and his team.

The sculptured soccer hard hats that are created at Makoya Makaraba are the result of a community project developed in Cape Town. Each hat is a unique top quality piece of sculptured artwork made from a builder's hard hat. Each one represents the team's hands-on passionate South African soccer culture.

This small company train and help uplift the people from the Township communities on the Cape Peninsula, in the art of designing and painting these fantastic fan helmets to a high World class standard. The difficult process of manually cutting and trimming, then painting the supporters hard hats to the highest standard, is a skill we have perfected and continue to teach and uphold.

Each helmet takes between eight to fourteen hours of passion and skill to make and are a work of art that sports fans worldwide truly value.

The present team is small, compact, keen and hard working and love their jobs and are very proud of the makaraba fan hats that they are producing and being showcased worldwide.

Source: Makoya Makaraba