South Africa as the Core's great integrator of the continent?

WSJ on successful World Cup symbolizing South Africa's ambition to unite the continent economically.

Intra-African trade remains paltry by global standards, largely due to missing interior infrastructure, as one colonial legacy is that the entire place is built to move commodities to the coasts.

South Africa now pushes a Cape Town-to-Cairo free trade zone as part of its ambitious vision.  The self-confidence shown is a big deal, because South Africa has the biggest and most liquid financial markets on the continent, so everything has to start there.

But South Africa is part of the problem:  a ten-fold increase in trade with China since the century began, but only a 4-fold increase with the rest of Africa.  So gateway ambition, yes, but not gateway performance--yet.

But Africa is poised for better things, we are told, because it escaped the financial crisis and because it's sizable middle class continues to emerge--and spend.

Here's hoping South Africa's ambition and self-confidence are catching.