i are the country's initials in afrikaans, one of south africa's 11 official languages. "kumi" means 10 for the year of the tournament in many african languages, world cup organizers said.
tim modise, spokesman for the south african organizing committee, said "zakumi" also can be understood as "come here" in southern african languages.
the idea, design and realization of the mascot all came from south africa, including cora simpson, whose company just east of johannesburg built the costume for monday's launch.
the world cup "brings business to my company," simpson said.
her initial contract with the organizing committee was worth less than 250,000 rand (about us$31,000), but simpson said it would open other opportunities and had spread optimism among her staff of about 30.