2010 World Cup: Africa's turn or turning on Africa? A political economy of FIFA's African adventure


PowerPoint slideshow by Patrick Bond.

[See also South Africa: Will the World Cup party be worth the hangover? by Patrick Bond.]

By Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed

[This article first appeared at Soccer & Society, volume 11, issue 1 & 2, January 2010.]

The awarding of soccer World Cup 2010 to South Africa was hailed as a great "victory" for the African continent and the cause of much celebration. It heightened expectations not only about the spectacle itself but about the benefits that would accrue to South Africa and the rest of Africa. This essay examines the notion of the successful bid as an "African victory" in the context of global power relations in football, South Africa's alleged function as a sub-imperialist power on the continent, and xenophobic attacks on African immigrants in South Africa.

After tracing the politics around South Africa's involvement in FIFA, this essay critically interrogates the benefits touted for South Africa and Africa: development for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, economic opportunities for ordinary South Africans, increased tourism in South Africa, and football development and peace and nation-building across the continent. Will the World Cup, as former South African president Thabo Mbeki would like, be the moment "when Africa stood tall and resolutely turned the tide on centuries of poverty and conflict"?

The basis of [South Africa's] bid was a resolve to ensure that the 21st century unfolds as a century of growth and development in Africa … This is not a dream. It is a practical policy … the successful hosting of the FIFA World Cup™ in Africa will provide a powerful, irresistible momentum to [the] African renaissance … We want, on behalf of our continent, to stage an event that will send ripples of confidence from the Cape to Cairo - an event that will create social and economic opportunities throughout Africa. We want to ensure that one day, historians will reflect upon the 2010 World Cup as a moment when Africa stood tall and resolutely turned the tide on centuries of poverty and conflict. We want to show that Africa's time has come.[1] – Former South African president Thabo Mbeki, 2003

When Thabo Mbeki was recalled [sacked] by the African National Congress (ANC) in September 2008, one of the first public acts of interim president Kgalema Motlanthe was to assure FIFA president Sepp Blatter that South Africa "remains on course to host in 2010 the best FIFA World Cup ever – an African World Cup".[2] The awarding of the World Cup to South Africa was a cause for much celebration across the continent. For the hosting country it is hugely symbolic. It was apartheid South Africa's reaffiliation to FIFA in the 1950s that united African nations in calling for its exclusion. It is also the first time that the tournament will be held in Africa. The Olympic Games and Football World Cup are the two most prised international sporting mega-events and Africa's failure to host either of these reflects for many the continent's political and economic marginalisation. The wide exposure provided by World Cup 2010 will present an opportunity to show that Africa can match the best in Europe in terms of infrastructure, services and razzle-dazzle that is part and parcel of these mega-events.

This essay examines the notion of the successful bid as an "African victory" in the context of the global political economy of football as well as South Africa's often fraught relationship with Africa. It briefly traces the politics around the relationship of South Africa, the Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF) and the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), before examining the language and tenor of the World Cup bid and its supposed benefits for Africa. What does Africa stand to gain from World Cup 2010 to warrant its billing as a pan-African event that will "provide a powerful, irresistible momentum to [the] African renaissance"?

2010: Africa's turn

South African soccer officials and government ministers have justified the holding of the World Cup on a number of levels. The broad rationale is that it will be a boost for South Africa specifically and more generally the African Renaissance agenda, heralding the growing unity of the continent in its quest to escape the quagmire of poverty.

South Africa has played a major role in informing the way CAF related to FIFA in spite of not gracing the soccer fields of the African continent for most of the years of apartheid (1948-94).[3] CAF's struggle to exclude South Africa from FIFA was a persistent theme, as much as its own struggle for greater representation within FIFA. With the demise of apartheid, South Africa argued robustly that Africa should host the World Cup and put itself forward as a candidate. The South African Football Association's (SAFA) bid to host the 2006 World Cup was on the basis that it was "the best qualified country in Africa".[4] The official bid for 2006 held that "South Africa will represent all of Africa in hosting this event".[5] The successful bid was made on the basis of a (Pan-)African World Cup.

Claims about alleged benefits reflect the sheer scale of the event and the fact that soccer is by far the continent's most popular sport. Successfully staging the World Cup, according to a government website, would "spread confidence and prosperity across the entire continent … South Africa stands not as a country alone – but rather as a representative of Africa and as part of an African family of nations".[6] The government pledged to work with African countries on projects like "peace and nation-building, football support and development, environment and tourism, culture and heritage, communication, telecommunication, and continental security cooperation".[7]

At the 2004 farewell banquet for the bid team, then deputy-president Jacob Zuma predicted economic spin offs for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region which "will fit in with our objectives of working for the sustainable development … of our continent. Our victory is therefore the victory of our sister countries as well". Zuma added that the tournament would assist in "alleviating poverty, creating jobs and generally in social upliftment. Not to mention the … eradication of stereotypes and Afro-pessimism".[8] African leaders bought into this idea. The 8th Assembly of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa in January 2007 affirmed its commitment to make the World Cup a "truly African tournament". Member states were urged to develop national programs to implement the 2010 FIFA World Cup Legacy Programme.[9]

A March 2007 workshop of the World Cup Local Organising Committee (LOC), which included members of the AU and South African government, officially launched an African Legacy Programme. It called for the development of an Africa-wide sports policy to harmonise the free movement of sportspersons; use of football for socioeconomic redress; "sport for peace" campaigns; and the development of football as a successful commercial enterprise. A joint media statement was resolute that "the 2010 FIFA World Cup is an African World Cup and it is upon all of us to make it a truly African World Cup".[10]

This essay argues that such claims are hollow on two counts. First, the xenophobic attacks against African immigrants and refugees during 2008 and the government's tardy response exposed a rabid inward-looking nationalism. The actual benefits to African countries is never clearly spelt out and if post-apartheid history is anything to go by, it will more likely mean providing greater access for South African capital into the continent's markets.[11] Second, if the World Cup is a platform to confront the progressive underdevelopment of Africa and its football, then the starting point has to be to challenge the very way in which FIFA functions, which the LOC has failed to do.

Hence the question, does the World Cup mark Africa's turn or the turn on Africa? We address this by examining a few key issues surrounding the World Cup: the building of stadiums, the commercial benefits for ordinary South Africans, development of football, economic benefits for SADC countries, and the xenophobic attacks on Africans living in South Africa.

Stadiums and infrastructure

The government is spending massive sums on building and renovating football stadiums, with costs rising from an initial estimate of R2.5 billion to R8.4 billion by 2007 (to a projected R10 billion by 2008). Overall, the government pledged R400 billion between 2006 and 2010 for infrastructure development, including upgrading road, air and rail transport. This will not necessarily have long-term economic benefits because much of this infrastructure is geared specifically for the World Cup, and may differ from infrastructure needs related to historic patterns of development and industrialisation.[12] To cite an example, following two train crashes in February 2009 that left 131 people injured, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) blamed under-investment in infrastructure. The union federation issued a statement that when it "was opposing the Gautrain we argued that the billions being spent on this prestige project for a rich minority of commuters should rather be spent on upgrading the existing public transport system, which is used by the poor majority".[13] The South African Road Federation estimated that the terrible condition of roads was costing the country R200 billion a year due to vehicle damage, accidents and traffic jams which led to higher fuel consumption, lost production hours and higher transport costs.[14]

FIFA has played a heavy hand in deciding on host cities and location of stadiums. The number of cities was reduced from the 13 listed in the bid to nine, while several stadiums mooted by the LOC were rejected. The Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban will cost an estimated R2.5 billion when the existing rugby stadium across the road could have been upgraded for a fraction of the cost. Bid promoters wanted to refurbish Athlone Stadium, both to reduce cost and because it was located in a historically low income "Coloured" township.[15] A representative was quoted as saying: "A billion television viewers don't want to see shacks and poverty on this scale." The then ANC-led city and provincial governments capitulated. FIFA's insistence that the stadium have Table Mountain as its backdrop will come at a cost of at least R2.5 billion.[16]

Ordinary South Africans are being forced to make immediate personal sacrifices. The provincial government of Mpumalanga threatened to reverse a R63 million land claim settlement unless the Matsafeni community surrendered a prime portion of its ancestral land for R1 to build Mpumalanga's flagship R1 billion stadium. In August 2008, the Pretoria High Court ordered that trustees of the Matsafeni Trust be replaced.[17] Jimmy Mohlala, speaker of the Mpumalanga municipality of Mbombela, was murdered in January 2009, allegedly for exposing these tender irregularities.[18] A report in the Mail and Guardian under the banner headline "Pupils burn tyres in protest at World Cup Stadium" stated that over a thousand pupils demonstrated angrily at the stadium site in Nelspruit when the only two schools in the area were earmarked for demolition to make way for a parking lot.[19]

A small elite is benefiting from infrastructure development. As Alegi has shown, this includes old white construction companies like Group Five and Murray & Roberts, and the new black elite like Tokyo Sexwale and Bulelani Ngcuka. Image is crucial in the decision to build stadiums.[20] World Cup related capital expenditure is impacting on fiscal reserves and putting pressure on the economy in a context where the masses need jobs and service delivery. Public funds earmarked for basic services for the poorest South Africans are siphoned off into mega projects. This is a classic example of public funds being used for private profit.

Eddie Cottle, coordinator of the Campaign for Decent Work and Beyond 2010, made light of claims that the infrastructure development would create around 100,000 sustainable jobs. On the contrary he stressed that the state would spend the same amount in preparation for the World Cup as it would have spent on the more pressing need of housing over a 10-year period (2000-10).[21] Miloon Kothari, the UN special rapporteur for housing, told Worldpress.org on October 30, 2007, that "the promises of the early years are now in reversal … All the progressive judgments have not been implemented, nor has the constitutional regulation and the right to housing in policy been put into practice."[22]

This neglect has led to increasing service delivery protests and rising inequality. Economist Stephen Gelb argued that funds allocated to stadiums would have built an estimated 90,000 new houses per annum over the period 2006 to 2010. This would have helped in addressing the high levels of homelessness in the country. Gelb called for open discussion on South Africa's priorities "to repair the social fabric and avoid future upheavals".[23]

Opportunities for ordinary South Africans in FIFA's corporate game

Soon after assuming the FIFA presidency in 1974, Joatildeo Havelange met Horst Dassler, CEO of Adidas France, and with marketing guru Patrick Nally, spawned an incredible triangle of the World Cup, growing television market and corporate sponsorship. Out of this relationship flowed the paradigm for major sports sponsorship: only multinational companies (MNCs) with global reach are considered as sponsors; sponsorship and advertising is segmented by product type so that only one company per product (soft drinks, beer and so on) is the official World Cup supplier; FIFA, rather than the host country, has the monopoly of television rights, advertising and stadium space; and finally, FIFA does not negotiate sponsorship directly, but through an intermediary who provides a guaranteed payment.[24]

Corporatisation of the global soccer economy has serious repercussions for the hosting of an "African" World Cup. The provincial government of KwaZulu-Natal had to backtrack on its World Cup logo which added "KwaZulu-Natal" to "2010 FIFA World Cup" when it was rudely reminded that only accredited agencies were allowed to use World Cup branding and that its logo could not be displayed at the glittering function in Durban on November 25, 2007, when the preliminary draw was made.[25] This incident reveals in crude fashion the close attention FIFA pays to ensure that it wrings all economic advantage. FIFA's "partners" for 2010, at a cost of around $125 million each, are Adidas, Sony, Visa, Emirates, Coca-Cola and Hyundai-Kia Motors. "Local" sponsors include cellphone giant MTN, First National Bank, Continental Tyres, Castrol, McDonald's, Indian IT company Satyam and South African telecommunication network Telkom. Few ordinary (South) Africans will benefit from what Blatter has described as the most commercially successful tournament ever.[26] In this business model, "corporate interests [were] increasingly conflated with the ‘common' and ‘national' interests advanced in the nation-building project" in South Africa.[27]

The much-vaunted "African" feel to the World Cup is unlikely to materialise. Women vending food outside soccer stadiums is one of the discerning features of professional soccer matches in South Africa. Mary Silanda is typical of thousands across the country who, "on the open space outside the stadium prepare pap, idombolo (dumplings), vegetables (chillies, tomatoes, beetroot and cabbage) and also braaied (barbecued) beef and chicken on a gas stove".[28]

Mary is a Soweto mother of four who began travelling across the country from 1998. She arrives at the crack of dawn and leaves long after the fans have left. During a cup final between Kaizer Chiefs and Sundowns in September 2008, she paid almost R200 to travel to Durban by taxi. She was devastated when the match was rained out as she lost R2000 "stock" instead of making a projected profit of a R1000. "This is the price one pays for taking a risk. I do this for my children. I have to pay their school fees and make sure that they go to bed with something in their stomach." Mary could not wait for the replay: "I just have to go back home because I left my kids alone." The pain of her loss is nothing compared to 2010. "When I think of today I get upset because this is what will happen in 2010 but the reasons will be different … It has been clear from the onset that we will not get a slice of the 2010 World Cup."[29]

International visitors are unlikely to taste Silanda's "pap and vleis"[30] as these "exclusive zones" are the monopoly of FIFA. According to another vendor, Sibongile Ndlovu, she was told by the LOC to buy a moving kitchen at a cost of R60,000 to bid for a World Cup food stall. This is beyond Ndlovu and the majority of women like her: "Selling outside the stadiums is like a tradition to us which FIFA wants to kill."[31] Tim Modise, the then spokesperson for the LOC, said that "inside the stadiums we will have FIFA's commercial partners, like McDonald's, operatin". Delia Fischer, FIFA's media officer, said that those who want to serve food would have to affiliate to a "master caterer".[32] These stories are a metaphor of how the World Cup operates. While the tournament will be held in Africa, the experience will be "Western".

Doors are closed for everyday entrepreneurs hoping to "cash-in". A spat between South African Tourism and Match Events, the company responsible for managing accommodation for the World Cup, became public knowledge in November 2008 when Moeketsi Mosola, chief executive of SA Tourism, announced it was leaving the advisory board of Match because it was using "its powerful position to bully the rest of the industry" into lowering prices. The Zurich-based Match is a joint venture by professional service companies, Byrom in Britain and Eurotech Global Sports in Switzerland.[33]

Economic gains are now peddled as "after the World Cup" when South Africa would presumably gain from global exposure. These developments underscore FIFA's evolution into a massive business enterprise. There are other changes that portend an even greater underdevelopment of the game in Africa.

Football support and development

The LOC, AU and South African government pronounced that the World Cup will lead to "football support and development"[34] in Africa. The African Union declared 2007 the International Year of African Football (IYoAF). At the launch of IYoAF on March 7, 2007, South African minister of sport M. Stofile called for "good management skills, sound finance management skills and overall good governance … A better organised football league in each African country is a must. Better performing African teams at home and abroad are a must."[35]

The economic might of the European football confederation, UEFA, makes many of these declarations hollow. UEFA has built its financial muscle through the cash cow that is the European Champions League and television revenue.[36] Transnational business favours contests between mega-clubs over traditional competition between nations, which are an important expression of national identity but lack economic imperatives.[37] While UEFA has demanded greater voice in how the game is run,[38] to date the fact that the World Cup remains the "most powerful single element in the global economic presence of football" suggests that the "non-economic imperatives of national identity have been strong enough to assert themselves within the game", even though the growing power of European clubs will continue to threaten FIFA.[39]

The best African players are lured to Europe. There were at least 730 Africans plying their trade in Europe at the end of 2007.[40] The flow back is largely in the form of "experts". CAF president Issa Hayatou complained that "rich countries import the raw material – talent – and often send their less valuable technicians".[41] While individual players who "make" it benefit financially, "their movement … is part of a wider process which has under-developed African football".[42] Alvito's description of the impact of globalisation on Brazilian football is instructive: "All clubs can do is train talented players … and then consume them as products of the new football industry: t-shirts, video games, televised games and trading cards. This is our piece of the pie of what is globalised football."[43] Is this what the South Africa's "state-of-the-art" facilities will lead to?

Danny Jordaan once called for a more interventionist approach in the governance of global football. Writing before South Africa won the right to host 2010, he argued that Africa should have a greater say in decision making within FIFA to help forge "a different future for the beautiful game and a different world in which people live, work and play".[44] Jordaan raised the issue of power but there has been a marked silence on his part since becoming the local World Cup boss. The emphasis is wholly on providing infrastructure and maximising the economic benefits of hosting the game – showing the West that Africa is "world class". It is difficult to imagine the hosting of the World Cup reversing the trend. An added irony is that if the World Cup enhances South Africa's image as a football country and as an economic power this may attract more African players to the country to the detriment of their domestic leagues.[45]

Economic spin-offs for the Southern African Development Community

South Africa's post-apartheid economic relationship with Africa has been decidedly one sided. Trade with SADC countries in 1999 amounted to R20.3 billion. Of that, exports were R17.7 billion, an imbalance of 7:1 that rose to 9:1 in 2001, and continues to rise. South African corporations have moved with speed into Uganda, Swaziland, Lesotho, Tanzania and Rwanda, where they are running railways, managing airports, providing cellphone services, or controlling banks, breweries, supermarkets and hotels.[46] The state has got in on the act through the Industrial Development Corporation as well as direct interests in businesses. Accusations of exploitation are not uncommon.

Darlene Miller's research on grocery retailer Shoprite-Checkers in Zambia paints a picture of apartheid South Africa. One worker spoke on labour conditions: "What I can say is that they don't have feelings about human beings. If they could feel other people's feelings, I don't think they could treat us like this … It's really sad." Workers' perception that South Africa was the net beneficiary was building anger: "Even the government is aware that these people, they are just using Zambia as a market just to sell their things and send all their profits to South Africa. So Zambia's not benefiting from it."[47] Racism is rife: "The company is part of South Africa but it looks as if the ‘Boers' are still ruling South Africa … These Boers, they like that system of racialism which they are used to in South Africa."[48]

The UN Report on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo named seven South African companies as culprits. Beauegard Tromp commented that South African businesses have been quick to use Mbeki's forays into Africa to cut deals, "sometimes by hook or by crook".[49] As Sahra Ryklief put it, "Mbeki's African Renaissance is the best thing that has ever happened to South Africa's (still overwhelmingly white) capital in a long time."[50] South Africa is taking profits from Africa and leaving behind antagonism. As one Kenyan parliamentarian put it, "they bulldoze their way around. It seems like they still have the old attitudes of the old South Africa."[51] These developments led Console Tleane, of South Africa's Freedom of Expression Institute, to argue that "the relationship that South Africa has with … the continent as a whole is that of self-imposing sub-imperial power which will stop at nothing to exert its influence and extract as many benefits from every relationship that it develops".[52]

While there is reference to a boost to tourism, stadium improvements, training camps and friendly matches, there is nothing to suggest that South Africa's long-term economic hegemony will be reversed. In fact it may serve to deepen relationships between old white capital and the new black elite as they make common cause, Cecil Rhodes-like, in carving an investment path from the Cape to Cairo.

Finally, we examine the claim that the World Cup will pave the path of peace, nation-building and security cooperation across the continent.

Xenophobia

May 2008. A series of xenophobic attacks aimed at African immigrants and refugees left 62 people dead, hundreds injured and thousands displaced. This was a prelude to the sustained attacks on Africans that began on May 12, 2008, in Alexandra and spread to townships across Gauteng province and into KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. Sporadic attacks were also reported in Mpumalanga, North West and the Free State. The most horrifying image was that of Ernesto Alfabeto Nhamuave, a 35-year old father of three from Mozambique who was burnt to death. The image of this human fireball drew haunting reminders of necklacing during the apartheid years.[53] While these were not the first xenophobic incidents in post-apartheid South Africa, the intensity, spread and graphic violence highlighted by the media shocked the nation.

The relationship between football fans and foreign players in South Africa brings into sharp relief the ambivalence of the contemporary world. They are willing to tolerate foreigners in their local football teams but not in their communities. They are torn between pride in "their" foreign players and xenophobia. There are an estimated 80 players from various African countries plying their trade in the local PSL. Many have complained of being stereotyped "as takers of jobs and resources". Orlando Pirates' Zimbabwean striker Gilbert Mushangazike, for example, said: "We are heroes when we score goals but we are people's enemies on the streets. Although I'm here legally, I'm so scared that I'm afraid to walk on the streets or go visit my friends. This whole thing has affected me and many teammates." Foreign African footballers are also more vulnerable to police harassment. Leon Prins, CEO of Moroka Swallows, said that Swallows players Mame Niang of Senegal and Henrico Botes of Namibia were "routinely intimidated" by police in Germiston.[54]

The attacks were especially poignant given that 2010 chief Danny Jordaan billed the tournament as "a celebration of Africa's humanity". "Africa", he said, "has too often been a continent of division, of wars, of humiliation".[55] There were rumours that that the World Cup may be moved elsewhere. Danny Jordaan assured the world that xenophobic attacks would pass by quickly.[56] Some foreigners are targeted directly because of the World Cup. For example, pressure from Durban city manager Mike Sutcliffe to "clean" the city before 2010, resulted in municipal police evicting 47 refugees from Albert Park on November 1, 2008. Constable Kwesi Matenjwa explained:

It is that 2010 (Soccer World Cup) … is around the corner. Because 2010 is going to be here, so the people from the other countries, when they come to this country, they must have this image that South Africa, the city of Durban is clean, that there are no vagrant people, there are no traders in the streets. So that is why people like us are detailed to deal with certain complaints … Yesterday we failed to comply with his instruction. Because yesterday we were supposed to come here and demolish this place. But because yesterday we decided not to do so because of our sympathy, because we are also human beings … we feel for these people … Yesterday at about 9:20 I said to him "The people are asleep and they have kids and women that are expecting. How do you say to me 'you must demolish the place'?" That will result in him charging me for failing to obey instructions.[57]

Across the country harsh steps were taken to force African immigrants out of camps and back to their home countries. According to Lawyers for Human Rights, police methods "include removal of identity cards from residents, removing their property including clothes, arresting residents for 'trespassing' and then withdrawing the charges after a weekend in detention".[58]

The xenophobic attacks are part of a longer term pattern that lays bare claims of an African Renaissance. Michael Neocosmos expresses it acutely:

Since liberation, Africa for South Africans has become the place "over there", the place of the "other", to be acted upon, "led" by politicians, "studied" by academics, "developed" by investors "visited" by tourists in search of the natural and the authentic. The subjective relations between South Africa and the continent have become quasi-colonial, intensified not only by South African economic dominance, but also by the role of South Africa as bridgehead for Western political liberalism on the continent. Under these circumstances, the slogan of the "African Renaissance" has become simply a vehicle for South African hegemony.[59]

While the World Cup is portrayed by South African political and football leaders as a catalyst for the invigoration of the economy of the African continent and is billed as an "African event", the experience of African immigrants in South Africa betrays a different reality. Will the World Cup help change perceptions? There are very little indicators that this is the case in the build-up to 2010. Rather the showcasing of South Africa as Africa's powerhouse is serving to reinforce the country's exceptionalism and national chauvinism.

Conclusion

Marketing the World Cup as an African event has added to the pressure on organisers to "deliver" not only myriad benefits promised to South Africans but also meet the expectations of African countries. But the global political economy of football makes it difficult to hold an "African" event. FIFA's World Cup "model" means that most processes are virtually cast in stone. It is a model that allows FIFA to amass a fortune out of television rights, advertising and sales of licensed products.

South Africa must fund "state-of-the-art" stadiums, world-class accommodation and related infrastructural developments. This has been a challenge for a country haunted by mounting inequality and fiscal constraints. The Gini coefficient, which measures inequality of wealth distribution, rose from 0.62 in 1992 to 0.77 by 2001.[60] According to the 2005/06 Income and Expenditure Survey, the richest 10% of households in South Africa received more than half the disposable income; the poorest 40% less than 7%; and the poorest 20% less than 1.5%.[61] The average black citizen was earning an eighth of his/her white counterpart, an Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) survey found in January 2008. Inequality rose from 0.60 in 2006 to 0.62 on a zero to one scale, on which one represents absolute inequality.[62] The siphoning of public money is a decision that will have critical long-term developmental consequences.

Danny Jordaan is adamant that the litmus test of the World Cup will be how well South Africans embrace the tournament. "We want it to be remembered as the people's World Cup, where the people celebrate the game", he said. "I don't think there are any football fans like African football fans, with painted faces, with colourful dress, with song and dance and celebration.'[63] The cheapest tickets will be R150 (at a fixed exchange rate of R7 to US$1). With an unemployment rate estimated between a low of 27% (a definition that includes hunting wild animals and begging as employment) and a high of 40% (a definition that includes those who have given up looking for a job),[64] and with many in employment earning around US$150 or less per month, it is difficult to imagine many "celebrating the game" by actually going to the stadium.

The issue of accessibility to stadiums is already playing itself out in Mpumalanga province. The first-division side Mpumalanga Black Aces has fought a losing battle to play at the flagship stadium. The Mpumalanga Rugby Union had leased the stadium for its Mpumalanga Pumas team, which competes in the national Currie Cup. It agreed to pay the local municipality R150 a month and by 2009 the figure stood at a sum of R580. Aces had access to the stadium in the 2007/08 season. But all this changed, as journalist Lucky Sindane points out, once they reached the final in the Nedbank Cup:

[T]he team was perceived as rich. That's when the problems began. The Puma[s] officials raised their fees from R800 to R22,000 a game, ordered the development side to stop training at the stadium and the Aces players were told not to use certain change rooms … Difficult as it is to fathom, this is the discrimination to which Aces have been subjected at the hands of the white-dominated rugby club – after 15 years of democracy.[65]

Sindane went on to note that the Rugby Union is charged R10,000 to use the stadium, effectively cutting off black schools from access. The danger Sindane points out is that in the aftermath of 2010 as stadiums come up for lease this scenario could once more play itself out. Thabo Moroape, the Aces' public relations officer, is quoted as saying that the rugby Puma's are "eyeing the Mbombela (World Cup) stadium and that will be a blow for us as well as we would like to play our home games there".

Within South Africa the touted benefits include enhancing South Africa's international popularity as a destination of choice for tourists and foreign investors, black empowerment, infrastructural development and job creation. Intangible benefits include forging national pride and nurturing the "rainbow nation" identity. It is becoming increasingly clear that claims about the spin-off from the World Cup have been exaggerated. It was touted as a catalyst for uplifting the poor through job creation and attracting longer term investment and tourism. Most jobs are temporary, require limited skills and have been the site of worker protests. The hope of longer term investment and tourism, given the global economic crisis, appears a forlorn gamble. In November 2008 Horst Schmidt, one of FIFA's top advisers, warned that the 2008 global meltdown could substantially reduce the "numbers we expect from abroad". At the same press conference Danny Jordaan conceded that there was "an escalation of costs and it's difficult times for South Africa".[66]

FIFA's model has been a boost for old white capital and the new politically connected black elite who have joined hands in securing lucrative contracts. The ANC-led government and the LOC have done little to challenge the model. The World Cup affords a unique opportunity to confront FIFA. Giulianotti periodises the globalisation of football into five stages - "germinal", "incipient", "take-off", "struggle for hegemony" and "uncertainty". The latter "involves greater political struggles through ever more complex relations between rising numbers of collective actors such as FIFA, continental bodies, national associations, clubs and sponsors".[67] Phases are not pre-destined to be progressive. That requires agency in taking cognisance of the prevailing balance of forces. Africa's relationship with FIFA has been riven with confrontation that successfully forced changes over World Cup representation and the institution of the boycott of South Africa.

Is it not time to organise to challenge the transformation of global football into a form of global apartheid? Will the World Cup provide a platform to confront unequal power relations in global soccer which progressively underdevelop African soccer?[68] African participation in FIFA has illustrated that sport provides an opportunity for raising the banner of the political struggles of oppressed peoples. Can World Cup 2010 prove a catalyst to challenge the way global football is run? And, if so, where will that challenge come from and what will be its central demands? Joseph Blatter is insistent that, "South Africa needs a perfect organisation to show the world it is possible to do it here".[69] For Blatter, the World Cup gets reduced to a technical operation. But, as this essay has shown, the World Cup is much more than that. It is also about a particular economic model that serves particular interests and reinforces existing power elations. It is precisely this that FIFA wishes to have removed from the public sphere and which needs to be brought into the public domain.

While the May 2008 xenophobic violence in South Africa illustrates how protests around poverty and inequality can be turned against fellow poor community residents, there have also been powerful social movements that have raised myriad issues, from the provision of HIV/AIDS anti-retrovirals, the lack of adequate housing, to the commodification of water and electricity. It is out of these movements, as Percy Ngonyama argues, that a critical mass of activists could lead this challenge. There are post-apartheid examples to draw upon, most notably the UN sponsored World Conference Against Racism and World Summit on Sustainable Development when thousands took to the streets.

At the beginning of this essay we quoted Thabo Mbeki as wanting to ensure that "historians will reflect upon the 2010 World Cup as a moment when Africa stood tall and resolutely turned the tide on centuries of poverty and conflict". The irony is that Mbeki stands accused of piloting South Africa's elite transition and its neoliberal policies that oversaw deepening poverty and inequality in South Africa and a failure to translate the African Renaissance into movement that captured the imagination of the continent.

The examples highlighted in this essay of the way that preparations for the 2010 World Cup have unfolded suggest that it is unlikely to become a platform to confront the progressive underdevelopment of African football. For the tournament to become a catalyst for turning "the tide on centuries of poverty and conflict", then the starting point has to be a change in the very operations of FIFA, rather than the slavish adoption of its modus operandi by organisers. The hosting of the World Cup in South Africa is the perfect opportunity to bring the politics and economics of soccer back into the public domain.

[Ashwin Desai is from the the Centre for Sociological Research, Humanities Research Village, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, South Africa. Goolam Vahed is from the Department of Historical Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. This article first appeared at Soccer & Society, volume 11, issue 1 & 2, January 2010.]

Notes

1. Mbeki to Blatter. Letter in South Africa's Bid Book, 2003, in "South Africa 2020". http://www.sa2010.gov.za/africa/legacy.php.

2. "Montlanthe assures Fifa". Mail and Guardian, September 27, 2008. http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-09-27.

3. The first FIFA suspension came in 1961, and CAF was formed in 1957, so there was some contact in the early years of apartheid. Some games by black and white South African sides were played in Belgian Congo, Portuguese East Africa, Mauritius, and Northern and Southern Rhodesia. South Africa re-entered FIFA in 1992.

4. Quoted in Bolsmann and Brewster, Mexico and South Africa, p. 3.

5. SAFA 2006 Bid Book, P. 2.

6. "2010 FIFA World Cup. African Legacy". http://www.sa2010.gov.za/node/515.

7. "World Cup 2010". http://www.sa2010.gov.za/node/515.

8. "Message by Jacob Zuma at the 2010 World Cup Bid Farewell Banquet". http://www.sa2010.gov.za/node/425.

9. "2010 FIFA World Cup. African Legacy". http://www.sa2010.gov.za/node/515.

10. Department of Sport and Recreation, Republic of South Africa. "2010 FIFA World Cup".

11. See Daniel, Naidoo and Naidu, The South Africans, pp. 368-90.

12. Cornelissen, Crafting Legacies, pp. 251-2.

13. IOL, "Underspending Blamed for Train Crashes".

14. "Potholes Hitting SA Pockets". February 2, 2009. http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2277989,00.html.

15. See Alegi, "The Political Economy".

16. "Table Mounain or Bust". The Antidote, January 18, 2007. http://theantidote.wordpress.com/2007/01/18/fifa-table-mountain-or-bust/.

17. Gcina Ntsaluba, "Stadium Show Must Go On". Mail and Guardian, June 25, 2008. http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-06-25-stadium-show-must-go-on.

18. Nikolaus Eberl, "South Africa: Murder Enters the Field of Play". Business Day, January 8, 2009. http://allafrica.com/stories/200901080080.html.

19. "Student anger at Cup Stadium in Nelspruit", Mail & Guardian Online, September 29, 2008. http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-09-29-student-anger-at-cup-stadium-in-nelspruit.

20. See Alegi, "A Nation".

21. Cottle, A Frenzy for Profit, p. 26.

22. http://www.champnetwork.org/solidarity_project/2008/05/en/abahlali-basemjondolo-%E2%80%93-the-south-african-shack-dwellers-mov.

23. Gelb, Behind Xenophobia, p. 86.

24. Goldblatt, The Ball is Round, p. 525.

25. "Logo dispute over 2010", Sunday Tribune, November 18, 2007.

26. "South Africa's 2010 Cup challenge", BBC News, July 27, 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5141582.stm.

27. Alegi, "Feel the Pull", p. 6.

28. Lucky Sindane, "No 2010 Spoils for Chefs". Mail & Guardian, September 26, to October 2, 2008.

29. Ibid.

30. "Pap and vleis" is a staple in the diet of many township dwellers. Pap is a hard porridge made from ground corn while vleis is the Afrikaans word for meat. "Pap and vleis" refers to a mixture of sausage with porridge.

31. Sindane, "No 2010 Spoils for Chefs".

32. Ibid.

33. "Minister Steps into Row over Bullying". Cape Times, November 5, 2008. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20081105061451474C728959.

34. This is the term used by Harvey, The New Imperialism, pp. 184-5.

35. In Cornelissen and Solberg, "Sport Mobility", p. 310.

36. Sugden and Tomlinson, FIFA, p. 97.

37. Hobsbawm, Globalisation, pp. 91-2.

38. Sugden and Tomlinson, FIFA, p. 225.

39. Hobsbawm, Globalisation, p. 92.

40. Cornelissen and Solberg, "Sport Mobility", p. 304.

41. Cited in Darby, "Africa's Place", p. 171.

42. Darby, "African Football", p. 495.

43. Alvito, "Our Piece", p. 540.

44. Darby, "Africa, Football", p. xi.

45. Cornelissen and Solberg, "Sport Mobility", p. 309.

46. Daniel, "South Africans have Arrived", pp. 376-7.

47. Miller, South African Multinational, p. 18.

48. Ibid., 19. Also, see Miller, "Retail Renaissance".

49. "SA companies in DRC", Business Report, January 22, 2004. http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3688908&fSectionId=2514&fSetId=662.

50. Coventry, "Sarah Ryklief - Economic Apartheid".

51. "Awe and unease as South Africa Stretches out", New York Times, February 17, 2002. Accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/17/international/africa/17AFRI.html?todaysheadlines.

52. Kobia, "South Africa's Sub-Imperialist Overtone".

53. "Hostels Raided in South Africa Clampdown". CNN.com, May 22, 2008. http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/05/22/southafrica.riots/index.html.

54. Luke Alfred, "Xenophobia could turn Africa against World Cup". The Times, June 30, 2008. http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Sport/Article.aspx?id=792497.

55. Rex Gower, "World Cup Chief Condemns Violence". Accessed at Reuters UK, 23 May, 2008. http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldFootballNews/idUKPEK14299620080523?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0.

56. Nick Mulvenny, "Danny Jordaan Condemns Violence". Mail & Guardian Online, May 23, 2008. http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-05-23-danny-jordaan-condemns-violence.

57. From: Patrick Bond, Subject: Re: URGENT anti-Xenophobia action in Durban. February 11, 2009.

58. Pearlie Joubert, "Like a Concentration Camp". Mail & Guardian Online, September 26-October 2, 2008. http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-10-02-like-a-concentration-camp.

59. Neocosmos, from Foreign Natives, p. 125.

60. Schwabe, "Fact Sheet".

61. StatsSA, "Explanatory Note".

62. "SA Wealth Gap Widening". January 24, 2008. http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-25_2258159.

63. Mulvenny, "Danny Jordaan Condemns Violence".

64. Pollin et al., Employment-Targeted Economic Programme, pp. xiii-xiv.

65. Lucky Sindane, "No Black (Aces)". Mail & Guardian, February 6 to 12, 2009.

66. Lebogang Seale, "Worry Over Effect of Financial Crisis on Soccer Showpieces". The Star, November 23, 2008.

67. Giulianotti, Sport, p. 194.

68. See Alegi, "Political Economy".

69. Quoted in Cornelissen and Swart, The 2010 Football World Cup, p. 117.

References

Alegi, P. (2001) “‘Feel the Pull in Your Soul': Local Agency and Global Trends in South Africa's 2006 World Cup Bid". Soccer and Society 2:3 , pp. 1-21. [informaworld]

Alegi, P. (2007) "The Political Economy of Mega-Stadiums and the Underdevelopment of Grassroots Football in South Africa". Politikon 34:3 , pp. 315-331. [informaworld]

Alegi, P. (2008) “‘A Nation To Be Reckoned With': The Politics of World Cup Stadium Construction in Cape Town and Durban, South Africa". African Studies 67:3 , pp. 397-422. [informaworld]

Alvito, M. (2007) "Our Piece of the Pie: Brazilian Football and Globalisation". Soccer and Society 8:4, pp. 524-544. [informaworld]

Bolsmann, C. and Brewster, K., Mexico and South Africa 2010: Development, Leadership and Legacies. Paper presented at Conference on Sport History, University of Stellenbosch.

Cornelissen, S. (2007) "Crafting Legacies: The Changing Political Economy of Global Sport and the 2010 FIFA World Cup™". Politikon 34:3 , pp. 241-259. [informaworld]

Cornelissen, S. and Solberg, E. (2007) "Sport Mobility and Circuits of Power: The Dynamics of Football Migration in Africa and the 2010 World Cup". Politikon 34:3, pp. 295-314. [informaworld]

Cornelissen, S. and Swart, K. Horne, J. and Manzenreiter, W. (eds) (2006). "The 2010 Football World Cup as a Political Construct: The Challenge of Making Good on an African Promise". Sports Mega Events: Social Scientific Analyses of a Global Phenomenon, pp. 108-124. Blackwell Publishing/The Sociological Review, Oxford.

Cottle, E. (2008) "2010: A Frenzy for Profit". Amandla! 3, pp. 26-27.

Coventry, John (September 18 2003), "Sarah Ryklief - Economic Apartheid". http://www.waronwant.org/Sahra20Ryklief20Economic20Apartheid+5725.twl.

Daniel, J., Naidoo, V. and Naidu, S. Daniel, J., Habib, A. and Southall, J. (eds) (2003), "The South Africans have Arrived: Post-apartheid Corporate Expansion into Africa". State of the Nation

2003-04, pp. 368-390. HSRC Press , Pretoria.

Darby, P. (2000), "Africa's Place in FIFA's Global Order: A Theoretical Frame". Soccer and Society 1:2, pp. 36-61. [informaworld]

Darby, P. (2002), Africa, Football and FIFA: Politics, Colonialism and Resistance, Frank Cass, London.

Darby, P. (2007), "African Football Labour Migration to Portugal: Colonial and Neo-Colonial Resource". Soccer and Society 8:4 , pp. 495-509. [informaworld]

"2010 FIFA World Cup. African Legacy Workshop proceedings", Department of Sport and Recreation Republic of South Africa, http://www.srsa.gov.za/PageMaster.asp?ID=250.

Gelb, S. Hassim, S., Kupe, T. and Worby, E. (eds) (2008), Behind Xenophobia in South Africa: Poverty or Inequality? Go Home or Die Here?, pp. 79-92. Wits University Press, Johannesburg.

Giulianotti, R. (2005), Sport: A Critical Sociology, Polity Press, Cambridge.

Goldblatt, D. (2006), The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football, Viking, London.

Harvey, D. (2003), The New Imperialism, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Hobsbawm, E. (2007), Globalisation, Democracy and Terrorism, Little Brown, London.

IOL (February 3 2009), "Underspending Blamed for Train Crashes". http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=181&art_id=nw20090203141915872C743082.

Kobia, David (December 8 2006), "South Africa's Sub-Imperialist Overtone". http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/30.

Miller, Darlene, "South African Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and Regional Claim – Making in post-Apartheid Southern Africa: A Case Study of Retail Workers at Shoprite-Checkers in Zambia". Paper delivered at Codesria 30th Anniversary Conference Dakar, Senegal.

Miller, D. (2008), “‘Retail Renaissance' or Company Rhetoric: The Failed Partnership of a South African Corporation and Local Suppliers in Zambia". Labour, Capital and Society 4:1, pp. 35-55.

Neocosmos, M. (2008) From "Foreign Natives" to "Native Foreigners". Explaining Xenophobia in Post-apartheid South Africa: Citizenship and Nationalism, Identity and Politics, Council for the Development of Social Science Research, Dakar.

Pollin, R., Epstein, G., Heintz, J. and Ndlkumana, L. (2006), An Employment-Targeted Economic Programme for South Africa, United Nations Development Programme, New York.

Schwabe, Craig (July 26 2004), "Fact Sheet: Poverty in South Africa." Human Sciences Research Council, http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0000990/.

South African 2006 World Cup Bid Book. Accessed at http://www.project2010.co.za/2010_World_Cup.loc.asp?PN=15.

Stats, SA (July 1 2008) "Explanatory Note on the 2006 Consumer Price Index Weights". http://www.statssa.gov.za/cpi/documents/CPI%20weights%201%20July%202008%20final.pdf

Sugden, J. and Tomlinson, A. (1998), FIFA and the Contest for World Football, Polity Press, Cambridge.

The Khulumani Support group has organised a People’s Justice Fan Centre at the Methodist Central Mission in Jabavu, Soweto for the duration of the World Cup. Here members of the community, and beyond, can engage in critical debates around the Apartheid Lawsuit and broader social justice issues while also screening every game of the World Cup!

Go to http://redcardcampaign.wordpress.com/peoples-justice-fan-centre-program… for the full program

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/insidestory/2010/06/201061463338724452.html

Twenty years ago, South Africa was a deeply divided society, under an international sports and trade boycott.

But on Friday, the world's most anticipated sporting event, World Cup 2010, began in Johannesburg.

But the lead up to the event has been shrouded in pessimism. From the moment FIFA awarded South Africa hosting honours for the 2010 World Cup, some sceptics believed the nation could not pull it off.

Others maintained that hosting the event would negatively impact a country in which abject poverty is still widespread.

The event has, however, kicked-off, and everything from stadiums to transport infrastructure was ready. But what has been the cost to the country and what do South Africans stand to gain from it?

Inside Story, with presenter Mike Hanna, discusses with guests: Ashwin Desai, the author of The Race to Transform: Sport in post-Apartheid South Africa; Steve Wilson, a sports writer for the Telegraph; and Ashraf Garda, a radio host and a freelance sports journalist.

This episode of Inside Story aired on Sunday June 13, 2010.

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THE SOCCER WORLD CUP IS HERE BUT THE POOR CONTINUE TO ‘FEEL’ HARDSHIP

The Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) and allies will be embarking on a march tomorrow (11th June) to coincide with the opening of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The march will start at 09h00 from Ben Naude Drive, opposite Fons Luminous Combined School Assembly Area and will proceed along the Rand Show Road/Aerodrome Drive towards Soccer City. The APF urges all community and other civil society organisations who share our concerns and who wish to add their voices, to join us. We have no intention of disrupting the World Cup but simply to voice our discontent/concerns.

Despite the APF’s attempts to overturn them, conditions have been imposed by the Johannesburg Metro Police (in the name of ‘national security’) such that the march will not be allowed to proceed to Soccer City itself but will end at a designated ‘speakers corner’ some 1,5 kms away from the stadium. A memorandum of grievances and demands from communities that make up the APF has been drawn up and all the main local, provincial and national government offices have been contacted to come and receive this memorandum.

The Soccer World Cup is here and the official theme is “feel it, it is here”. However, despite the fact that most people love the game of soccer, poor communities are only feeling the hardship of South Africa’s hosting of the World Cup and the neoliberal policies which continue to ensure that poor people remain poor.

The massive amounts of public funds used to build new stadiums and related infrastructure for this World Cup have only served to further deny poor people the development and services they have been struggling for over many years. Millions remain homeless, unemployed and in deep poverty, thousands in poor communities across South Africa continue to be brutally evicted and those struggling to survive (like street vendors) are being denied basic trading rights and are criminalised.

Yet, our government has managed, in a fairly short period of time, to deliver ‘world class’ facilities and infrastructure that the majority of South Africans will never benefit from or be able to enjoy. The APF feels that those who have been so denied, need to show all South Africans as well as the rest of the world who will be tuning into the World Cup, that all is not well in this country, that a month long sporting event cannot and will not be the panacea for our problems. This World Cup is not for the poor – it is the soccer elites of FIFA, the elites of domestic and international corporate capital and the political elites who are making billions and who will be benefiting at the expense of the poor.

For the past fifteen years the majority of South Africans have continued to suffer the inheritances of the apartheid regime and neoliberal macro-economic policies. General living conditions, largely due to a lack of basic services and employment opportunities, have gone from bad to worse to bad. These problems are very real and they range from:

* the huge backlog in formal housing (parallel to the increased growth in shack settlements in all main urban and peri-urban areas)
* lack of access to electrification in many poor areas (upwards of 30% of South Africans – most of whom are poor – remain unelectrified and are forced to use dangerous substitutes such as paraffin and candles)
* a poor quality public education system (in which educational resources are scarce and a serious crises in the provision of basic services at public schools continues)
* a dire lack of proper recreational facilities and programmes in poor communities (contributing to a range of serious social problems, especially amongst the youth)
* the immense number of impoverished, unemployed people across the country (despite the promises of job creation through the World Cup, over 1 million have lost their jobs over the past two years – including those workers casually employed to build the new stadiums - and the real unemployment rate is around 40% - a national crisis!).

The APF wants to make it clear that we love the game of soccer. Soccer is a predominately working class sport that is enjoyed by billions around the globe. But this World Cup does not represent those billions but rather the interests of a small elite who have manipulated the beautiful game and have used this World Cup to make massive profits at the expense of poor ordinary South Africans who, after all, are the ones who have paid – through the public purse – for what so few will enjoy.

South Africa is the most unequal society in the world and we believe that addressing this socio-economic inequality must be the top priority of our country, our government is addressed. One World Cup – no matter how much we enjoy watching soccer – is not going to address or solve our fundamental problems. The more we continue to allow the elites to hide the realities of our country, to falsely claim that this World Cup will provide lasting social unity and leave a positive developmental ‘legacy’ and to spend public funds to do so, the farther we move from confronting the real problems that the majority in our country experience every day of their lives.

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SOCIAL MOVEMENTS INDABA

Western Cape

Press Statement on 2010 FIFA World Cup

The Social Movements Indaba of Western Cape (SMI-WC) is a PLATFORM of different community organizations around Cape Peninsula. On implementing the national SMI decisions to organize national joint actions and events, SMI-WC announces its position on the 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP held in South Africa.

The World Cup came at a time when the majority of poor South Africans are involved in a nation wide service delivery revolts. The world has been told that South Africa is one of the countries that can host big events freely with out any security risks. Having said that, the world is not told that the country is facing an increasing housing backlog and a sky rocketing rate of unemployment.

Again the world is not told that millions of poor South African living in informal settlements are still using the apartheid bucket toilet system, no flushing toilets and clean running water. The world is also not told that millions of poor South African lives without electricity and many are currently experiencing water and electricity cut – offs.

When South Africa won the bid to host the world cup the nation has been told that world cup will create more jobs for the poor people. And yet the poor street vendors are being removed from selling in the world cup stadiums or they must pay R50 000 registration to be able to sell their local food in the stadiums. The workers who built the stadiums have been given one match ticket to for the world cup as compensation while they’ve already lost their jobs.

Is that job creation or benefit for the South African poor if we cannot even sell our Pap and Vleis for the foreigners to taste the local African foods? Is that a benefit for the poor when millions of Rands are being spent on building world class stadiums while people are living asbestos houses and others with no shelter at all? It that a benefit for the poor when the rail workers could not get 15% increase on their wages while the management increase their salaries with 30% twice a year.

The SMI strongly condemn the South African government’s failure to deliver on the basic services for the poor working class communities while they spend millions of Rands building stadiums instead of houses for the people. The SMI strongly condemns the ANC government for not sticking to its election manifesto promises to build houses, provide electricity and water, and build sanitation and flushing toilets for the poor communities.

As the SMI we are shocked and surprised by the political directions of the ANC government as they reflect the ANC’s neo-liberal GEAR policies. The SMI is also not surprised by the direction of the ANC, never mind its election promises, because we knew that the ANC is no longer a party that serves the interests of the poor, but it is a party of monopoly capital and a party that responds and represents the interests of big business and the ruling class.

It is therefore important that the world must know that while the country is hosting the world cup, it rates number one as the most unequal country in the world. The SMI will not be silent and we will continue to voice our anger and show the outside world that South Africa has never changed.

The SMI is not anti-sport or anti–soccer, but our main concern is that the South African ANC government has spent millions of Rand on world cup preparations while the poor communities and workers at the shop floor could not get houses for their families.

It is out of that understanding that the SMI nationally will be having protest marches to voice our discomfort about the manner at which decisions are taken concerning the use of our resources as the South African Citizens.

The SMI will be targeting local FIFA fan Parks in our townships for protesting in areas such as Mew way Hall in Khayelitsha, Tafelsig sportfield in Mitchel’s plain and many more.

We are calling all progressive organizations and communities to support our protest marches in these areas.

We strongly support the Anti-Privatisation Forum in their march to FNB/ Soccer City stadium to voice our demands and show to the world that the poor people in South Africa do not benefit from the world cup.

For information contact:

Mzi 0787257630

Bells 076 731 6157

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Straight talk with FIFA's social responsibility head

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89429

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

Q: In a country with one of the world's highest HIV prevalence rates, why
has FIFA not allowed HIV/AIDS awareness activities in stadiums and fan
parks?

A: There are many institutions and parties involved in the implementation of the World Cup [but] when somebody doesn't get a reply to an email, then it's [the fault of] FIFA. This is something that we are used to, but we have to correct this information. There has been no decline [refusal] either from FIFA or the [Local] Organising Committee in South Africa for [HIV/AIDS] activities to take place in those areas. Maybe someone is still waiting for an email to be confirmed [as to] where the condom dispensers need to be delivered, and that has been taken as a decline, but that would surprise me. If such a request were to have come, it would have most certainly ended up in our department, and we would have checked it out. I can only tell you that ... FIFA has not received such a request and, definitely, it has never been declined.

Q: What HIV/AIDS activities has FIFA planned for the World Cup?

A: As part of [the government's current voluntary HIV testing and counselling] campaign, there are initiatives like the distribution of information and condoms at fan parks, fan fests and stadiums. Government-brand condoms are going to be distributed at the fan fests and at all the 10 stadiums. [City health services] in the nine host cities of the World Cup are responsible for getting in touch with the venue managers for that distribution to happen. The fan fests have an 'infotainment' programme, which is broadcast before and after the matches on the [viewing] screens. In that programme there are already two video messages related to HIV prevention, and there's even a commercial for condoms.

Q: Is it FIFA's responsibility to provide this kind of HIV/AIDS information?

A: It is not FIFA's responsibility to create a campaign or take responsibility for something that the South African government has already taken responsibility for.
The FIFA World Cup, and the stadiums and the fan parks, are just a minor chance for the distribution of this [HIV/AIDS] information. However ... health authorities are right in approaching the FIFA World Cup organisers to use those channels. If we can help in supporting this campaign, we will, but the responsibility remains with the South African health authorities. We need to also be aware of the fact that the World Cup is about football ... and that 99 percent of the communication around the FIFA World Cup will be around football.

Q: Did people have unfair expectations of what FIFA's role would be in the
fight against HIV?


A: I would not say, 'unfair'. When you work for a UN agency or a non-governmental organisation and you dedicate your life to a certain cause, then of course you think your cause is the most important, and you will do anything to get whoever can have a positive impact on it to help you. We receive hundreds of requests for different causes, which are all legitimate, and we have the difficult task of having to say, 'No'. The management of expectations is something that we are permanently doing. Within FIFA I'm pushing for as much space as possible [for social causes], but there are limitations; it's impossible to speak about HIV, and about human rights, and about human trafficking, and violence and gender equity ... because we are the World Cup, and we should be speaking about football.

Q: What will be the legacy, in terms of HIV, of South Africa's World Cup?

A: There is going to be a legacy, medically, as centres of medical excellence in sports medicine and sports-related public health interventions are being opened on the African continent, thanks to our FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Centre (F-MARC). From a social development perspective ... the concrete investment from FIFA in this regard was the Football for Hope centres, which were launched in 2007 under the slogan "20 Centres for 2010". HIV is present [as a focus] in most of the organizations and NGOs we are working with, and who are hosting and managing these centres.

A Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front statement on the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa

The 2010 Soccer World Cup must be exposed for the utter sham that it is. The ZACF strongly condemns the audacity and hypocrisy of the government in presenting the occasion as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity for the economic and social upliftment of those living in South Africa (and the rest of the continent). What is glaringly clear is that the “opportunity” has and continues to be that of a feeding-frenzy for global and domestic capital and the South African ruling elite. In fact, if anything, the event is more likely to have devastating consequences for South Africa’s poor and working class – a process that is already underway.

In preparing to host the world cup the government has spent close to R800 billion (R757 billion on infrastructure development and R30 billion on stadiums that will never be filled again), a massive slap in the face for those living in a country characterized by desperate poverty and close to 40% unemployment. Over the past five years the working poor have expressed their outrage and disappointment at the government’s failure to redress the massive social inequality in over 8000 service delivery protests for basic services and housing countrywide. This pattern of spending is further evidence of the maintenance of the failed neoliberal capitalist model and its “trickle down” economics, which have done nothing but deepen inequality and poverty globally. Despite previous claims to the contrary, the government has recently admitted this by doing an about turn, and now pretends that the project was “never intended” to be a profit making exercise [1].
[If -something- happens, we are there to write a statement/manifesto/criticism of it!]

South Africa desperately needs large-scale public infrastructure, especially in the area of public transport which is in some cities, including Johannesburg, is almost entirely absent. The Gautrain, which was launched on Tuesday the 8th June (just in time for the big event) is probably the biggest irony here: in a country where the large majority rely on unsafe private mini-bus taxis to travel long distances on a daily basis, the Gautrain offers high speed, luxury transport for tourists and those travelling between Johannesburg and Pretoria… who can afford it if a single trip between the airport and Sandton will set you back a massive R100. The same picture reveals itself everywhere: the Airports company of South Africa (ACSA) has spent over R16 billion on upgrading the airports, the commercialised South African National Road Agency Ltd (SANRAL) has spent over R23 billion on a new network of toll roads – all of which will implement strict cost-recovery measures to recoup the billions spent, and most of which will be of little benefit to poor South Africans. All over the country municipalities have embarked on urban regeneration schemes… accompanied by corresponding gentrification schemes, as the government attempts to hastily paper over the harsh South African reality. Over 15 000 homeless people and street children have been rounded up and dumped in shelters in Johannesburg alone, in Cape Town the municipality has evicted thousands of people from poor areas and squatter camps as part of the World Cup vanity project. The City of Cape Town (unsuccessfully) attempted to evict 10 000 Joe Slovo residents from their homes in order to hide them from the tourists travelling along the N2 highway, and elsewhere they are being removed to make space for stadiums, fan parks or train stations [2]. In Soweto, roads are being beautified along main tourist and FIFA routes, while adjacent schools sport broken windows and crumbling buildings.

Although many South Africans remain unconvinced, others are inundated and swept along by the deluge of nationalist propaganda aimed at diverting attention from the circus that is the World Cup. Every Friday has been deemed “soccer Friday”, in which the “nation” is encouraged (and school children forced) to sport Bafana-Bafana t-shirts. Cars are kitted out in flags, people learn the “Diski-dance” which is performed regularly at every tourist restaurant, and buy Zakumi mascot dolls. Anyone sceptical of the hype is denigrated unpatriotic, the prime example being when appeals were made to striking South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) workers to shelve their concerns “in the national interest” [3]. In a context where close to a million jobs have been lost over the course of the past year, government celebrations that the world cup has created over 400 000 jobs are empty and insulting. The jobs that have been created in the run up have been mostly casual or “Limited Duration Contracts (LCD’s)”, taken by workers that are not unionised and paid well below the minimum wage.

Apart from the repression of unions, social movements have received similar hostility from the state, which has unofficially put a blanket ban on all protest for the duration of the event. In fact there is some evidence that this has been in place since as early as the 1st March. According to Jane Duncan:

A snap survey conducted at the end of last week of other municipalities hosting World Cup matches revealed that a blanket ban on gatherings is in operation. According to the Rustenberg municipality, 'gatherings are closed for the World Cup'. The Mbombela municipality was told by the SAPS that they were not going to allow gatherings during the World Cup. The Cape Town City Council claimed that it continues to accept applications for marches, but indicated that it 'may be a problem' during the World Cup period. According to the Nelson Mandela Bay and Ethekwini municipalities, the police will not allow gatherings over the World Cup period [4].

Although it is clear that the constitution, often hailed for its “progressiveness” is far from the guarantor of freedom and equality that government claims it to be, this new form of repression is clearly in contradiction with the constitutional right to freedoms of expression and gathering. However, social movements in Johannesburg including the Anti-Privatisation Forum and several others have not given up so easily, having managed to get authorization for a protest march on the day of the opening with the help of the Freedom of Expression Institute. However, the march is being forced to be held three kilometres from the stadium where it will not attract the sort of media attention the government is worried about.

Not only has the state been repressively severe on the poor and any anti-World Cup demonstration or activity, all within the guise of painting South Africa as a host flinging its arms open in invitation to those flocking to its upmarket hotels, bed-and-breakfasts and cocktail lounges, but it does so under the guidance of Sepp Blatter and Friends’ legal criminal empire called FIFA (wonderfully referred to as THIEFA by the Durban Social Forum). Not only are they expected to benefit from a 2010 windfall of nearly € 1.2 billion, but have already gained over € 1 billion from media rights alone.

The stadia, and areas around the stadia, which were handed over to FIFA for the duration of the tournament (“tax free cocoons” literally creating FIFA-controlled and monitored areas exempt from normal taxation and other state laws), and all routes to and from the stadia have been forcibly cleared of anyone selling non-sanctioned FIFA products and those eking out an existence in squatter camps along airport roads. As such, people who would have banked on World Cup sales to boost their survival incomes are left out in the ‘trickle down’ cold.

FIFA, as sole owner of the World Cup brand and its spin-off products, also has a team of approximately 100 lawyers scouring the country for any unauthorised selling of these products and marketing of the brand. These products are seized and sellers are arrested despite the fact that most in South Africa and on the continent purchase their products from the informal trading sector, ars very few have R400 to dole out on team t-shirts and other gear. It has also has effectively gagged journalists with an accreditation clause that prevents media organisations from bringing FIFA into disrepute, clearly compromising freedom of press [5].

The major irony is that soccer was once truly the game of the working class. Viewing games live at stadia were cheap and easily accessible to people who chose to spend 90 minutes forgetting about the daily drudgery of their lives under the boot of the boss and the state. Today professional football and the World Cup bring exorbitant profits to a small cabal of a global and domestic elite (with billions spent unnecessarily and in a time of a global capitalist crisis) who charge patrons thousands of rands, pounds, euros, etc. every season to watch disgustingly overpaid footballers fall and dive all over manicured pitches at the slightest tug and who squabble, via parasitic agents, over whether or not they are deserving of their huge salaries. A game, which in many respects maintains its aesthetic beauty, has lost its working class soul and has been reduced to just another set of commodities to be exploited.

Bakunin once said that “people go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine themselves, for a few minutes anyway, free and happy”. Perhaps, amongst all the blindly nationalistic flag waving and vuvuzela-blowing, we can add sport to his equation and that it might seem easier to forget than to actively partake in combating injustice and inequality. There are many who do though, and the working class and poor and their organisations are not as malleable to illusion as government would want to believe. From temporary squatter camp constructions at the doors of the stadia, to mass protest and demonstrations, to countrywide strike action, unsanctioned or not, despite the taunts and jeers and the labels of being “unpatriotic”, or blanket bans on freedom of speech, we will defiantly make our voices heard to expose the terrible inequalities characterising our society and the global games played at the expense of the lives of those upon whom empires are built and will be, ultimately, destroyed.

Down with the World Cup!
Phansi state repression and divisive nationalism!
Phambili the people's struggle against exploitation and profiteering!

This statement was issued by the
Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front

For more information and other articles of critique see:

http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?2,40,5,2037
http://antieviction.org.za/
http://www.abahlali.org/

For other articles and statements on the current climate of struggle and repression in South Africa see:

Landless militants and shack-dwellers under attack in Soweto
Let Us Fight The Government, Not Each Other
The poor clashing with the poor over electricity in Soweto
Police Attack the Landless People’s Movement in eTwatwa, Ekurhuleni: One Person is Dead and another Seriously Injured
The Homes of Two Landless People's Movement Leaders Burnt as Police Look On
The Attack on the Landless People’s Movement Continues

Notes:

1. See Star Business Report, Monday 7th June, 2010
2. http://antieviction.org.za/2010/03/25/telling-the-world-that-neither-th…
3. http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71654?…
4. For article see http://www.sacsis.org.za/site/article/489.1
5. http://www.sportsjournalists.co.uk/blog/?p=2336

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AIDS Organisations reiterate their concerns relating to blockages to condom access and health promotion with only days left before World Cup starts.

June 8 2010

HIV/AIDS organisations who are members of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) welcomed the FIFA statement regarding access to FIFA controlled fan parks and stadia that appears to have been released on June 6th. However we would like to point out the following inconsistencies in the statement.

1. We welcome the efforts by FIFA through its Festival of Hope and its Centres of Hope in reaching vulnerable children and youth. However, the Festival of Hope is a once-off activity that will take place during a defined period of the tournament and outside of the FIFA controlled fan fests and stadia and will reach a relatively small number of people. It will not directly reach the millions of people within FIFA controlled spaces during the duration of the tournament itself.

2. We are happy to confirm that as of June 7th 2010 a process is underway to get the service provider accreditation to ensure that condoms are supplied to the stadia on an ongoing basis for the duration of the World Cup. But questions remain concerning delivery schedules; the frequency of the delivery and access to the controlled areas.

3. Concerns remain regarding the accessibility of condoms within the fan fests. We reiterate that in some instances City Health Departments (Cape Town and Durban) have been informed that no condoms or HIV-related information may be distributed within the Fan Fests. We are informed that a small number of NGOs that have been given space within the fan parks and fan fests but have been told that they may not disseminate socially relevant messages within the the fan fests and FIFA controlled environments.

4. Indeed two HIV and health promotion organisations have had to pay hundreds of thousands of rands to purchase space to have their public service announcements broadcast into the Fan Fest for the duration of the tournament. Owing to their budgetary constraints this is limited to one or two fan fests and not across all fan fests. In our view this is not acceptable.

5. While it is noted that the commercial supplier Durex will be flighting condom promotion messages within the fan parks the cost of Durex condoms is beyond the reach of many South Africans who will be frequenting the fan parks and its distribution is limited. In South Africa the governments CHOICE condoms are distributed freely and so to are socially marketed condoms (Trust and Lovers Plus) which are supplied at a lower cost than the Durex condoms. In our view condom promotion needs to be highly visible and cater for all markets as the fan fests will be freely accessable to all persons.

6. It is unfortunate that the statement by FIFA alludes to it having been in touch with the CEO of the SANAC as no official meetings have taken place between the CEO of SANAC, the concerned organisations, FIFA or the LOC to prepare for the World Cup. While a process of dialogue was undertaken prior to the World Cup there is still no confirmation that any of the SANAC approved partners will be allowed to distribute HIV-related materials within the fan fests.

Neither FIFA or the LOA have responded to our concerns other than through the media. So we reiterate our questions to FIFA and the LOC:

- Is there approval for condom and health information distribution at all FIFA controlled fan parks by the DOH and SANAC?

- Does this approval extend to all of SANAC’s civil society affiliates who are part of the SANAC Sports and Entertainment Sector?

- Is there going to be promotion of condoms and HIV testing, endorsed by FIFA and the LOC, during the world cup – in order to take advantage of millions of people who will be watching the football? How will this be done?

- Is there easy access to information about HIV/AIDS for fans, such as contact details for the AIDS Helpline?

We wish for the success of the World Cup. But we also wish for an HIV free generation and that FIFA would join hands with local AIDS organisations to exploit the opportunity that the World Cup presents to greatly strengthen and deepen our response to HIV/AIDS. It is not yet too late. But it soon will be.

Issued by:

AIDS Consortium, Community Media Trust , Johns Hopkins Health and Education in South Africa (Brothers for Life), National Religious Association for Social Development, Peri-Natal HIV Research Unit, Reproductive Health Research Unit (RHRU), Right to Care, SA HIV Clinicians Society, Section 27, Society for Family Health, Sonke Gender Justice Network (Sonke), Soul City, Treatment Action Campaign.

Endorsed by: Mark Heywood: Deputy Chairperson of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC)

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THE UGLY SIDE OF AFRICAN FOOTBALL

Article from News of the World

EXCLUSIVE By LEE SORRELL and BABATUNDE OGUNLADE

6 June 2010

AFRICA becomes the beacon of the world this Friday when it stages the greatest football tournament on Earth for the first time.

The World Cup kicks off in a blaze of celebration in South Africa's capital Johannesburg.

But in the lawless backstreets of cities across the continent lurks the despicable trade of soccer slavery - the illegal and sometimes deadly trafficking of child footballers to Europe...

UNLICENSED football agent Olarewaju Adeleke greedily displays a list of 46 African 'players' on his books.

But the majority are desperate children filled with false hope of becoming professional footballers in Europe. The youngest is just FOUR years old; another 11 are six or under.

Ruthless Adeleke is trading in human flesh. He promises them the dream of becoming the next Didier Drogba or Samuel Eto'o by fixing a trial for them at a top club in Europe. And he persuades their poverty-stricken parents to sign them into his care on shabby forms written in crude, nonsensical English.

As he stands with one of his players, eight-year-old Dolapo and his mother in the family's pitiful single room in Weighbridge, a slum area of the Nigerian capital Lagos, the man who calls himself Big Omen boasts: "What I write in the agreement, I told them that this child belong to me.

"I told them I will take care of him. I'm taking him for trials for Europe. So there will not be any problem."

Adeleke admits he uses the same tactics with each boy.

"I went to them (the parents) with my lawyer and they accept," he insists.

"They're happy because I told them that when they (the boys) get over there (to Europe) they will still go to school.

"The parents have signed agreements with me and they hand over their son's career to me. All of them accept it."

However, under Article 19 of the FIFA rulebook, it is an offence for a player under the age of 18 to be moved from one continent to another for football purposes.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has described this brutal trade as "social and financial rape" and has announced a series of measures to combat the problem.

But while Blatter and his fellow pampered football luminaries enjoy a life of luxury and limousines during the next five weeks, despicable "agents" will continue to make money from the brutal trade of trafficking football children.

Adeleke's Big Omen For Good academy is one of thousands of unlicensed soccer schools that have spawned across Africa in the past decade.

He promotes his grandly-named sports organisation on internet football message board sites.

In his introduction letter, Adeleke insists: "I am the players' agent in charge of transferring good and fit players to FIFA LICENSED and various clubs in the world. Also, I am in charge of scouting players for different clubs in Nigeria and the whole wide world. I am interested in working directly with your club to supply you good and fit players.

"I will be able to send players of different positions and promise to buy tickets for the players to get over to you for trials. Please, contact me immediately to enable me send you the profile and passport for perusal."

Each CV for his kids states their name, date of birth, weight, height, position and, bizarrely, MARITAL STATUS. One boy, Tijani, is just four years old. He is described as a midfielder and affiliated to a local football club. Another, Ismaila, is five, while defender Qudri celebrated his sixth birthday yesterday.

Dressed in traditional African robes, and clutching three different mobile phones, shaven-headed Adeleke (right) invited undercover Irish News of the World reporters to watch a series of trial games at his academy in Ugudu - a poor district in the southern part of Lagos.

On a bumpy dirt track at the end of a back street, young barefooted boys show off their skills, desperate to be told they are bound for Europe.

Children like five-year-old Dalfique, whose favourite team is Manchester United. "I like Wayne Rooney because he can score penalty," he says. "I would like to play football in Europe."

Another boy, eight-year-old midfielder Daniel, says he supports Barcelona and his hero is Lionel Messi.

"I want to be a footballer," he says. "My mum says if I have the determination I should move on and if someone should help me with football I should go for it."

His mother adds: "I want him to go to school and play football. He's just a small boy. For the last two years we have really struggled to eat."

The father of midfielder Alawe, 13, adds: "If I had money three years ago he would have been in Europe."

An agent from Canada had visited their home and demanded !2,000 to take Alawe to Europe when he was just 10.

Alawe admits: "They asked to bring money but there was no money. That's why I couldn't make it."

Adeleke insists he has previously arranged trials for his boys in Serbia, Egypt, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and promises he can arrange flights and visas to get them to Europe. "A relative is working as a manager of an airline so he will help me with that, sir," he says. "When you send me the official letter (invitation letter from a European club) you have to go to the embassy.

"When I go there I just walk straight to the director or manager. So they will see the letter, give the visa and I will arrange the flight ticket. That's how it's done.

"Any boy you pick from me, I don't have problem with their visa or their flight ticket to Europe."

Of the boys he claims he has sent to Serbia and Kazakhstan, he adds: "They are in the academies.

I get paid from each one of them every month.

"I sent the travel documents to the club and they arranged for them an invitation letter.

"I went to the embassy to collect visa. Everything you do is about the contacts you have."

It is estimated that some 20,000 child footballers have been illegally shipped from Africa into Europe.

Many unwittingly risk life and limb as they are transported in small fishing boats from the North African coast.

Some are lost at sea or die through starvation.

Drogba's uncle, Michael Goba, helped rescue one teenager who was dumped in Paris by an agent after conning the youngster's family out of !1,500.

On the other side of Lagos is another academy, run by another agent who, like Adeleke, claims he has someone who can organise visas for his under-age youngsters to travel to Europe. "He's a travel agent in Ikeja," he says. "In the embassies he has contacts in Germany, Italy, Portugal, France, Belgium and Serbia."

Norwegian journalists Lars Backe Madsen and Jens M Johansson have written a book, Der Forsvunne Diamanten (The Lost Diamond) which reveals the grand scale of football's shameful slave trade.

It charts numerous pitiful cases of young players who are trafficked to Europe in search of a dream only to be dumped if clubs don't sign them up.

Ahmed Fousseni was 16 and playing football in Douala, Cameroon, when he was introduced to an agent called Christopher.

The agent promised him a contract with a top club in France in return for !2,400.

However, after a trial at a French First Division side proved unsuccessful, Ahmed was abandoned by his agent. And without any cash and an expired visa, Fousseni was forced to live on the streets of Paris. He was last seen working in the city's twilight economy, loading tyres on to a lorry.

Former Cameroon international Jean Claude Mbvoumin runs an organisation in France called Foot Solidaire which provides support to these abandoned kids.

He has helped more than 1,200 youngsters in Paris over the last 10 years - most of them from Africa.

Now he wants FIFA's help to educate families about the dangers of football trafficking.

Mbvoumin said: "It's very urgent to launch this campaign because after the World Cup the situation will be worse."

CASE STUDY: YVES LEFT IN PARIS

AFRICAN teenager Yves Camara, 15, was approached by a French agent calling himself Phillip after taking part in a tournament near his home in Ivory Coast capital Abidjan.

The agent said Yves had great ability and could become a star in Europe if he was prepared to make the trip.

"He said it would cost about £1,250 (!1,500)," says Yves. "He came to see my friend's dad and my friend's dad paid the money."

However, Yves' dreams of soccer stardom and untold riches were over before they even began.

"Me and Phillip flew into Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and then went to a hotel nearby," he recalls.

"He left me there and said he would come back the next day to take me to a trial. I never saw him again. Then the hotel manager said he had not been paid. I had to leave."

Yves was put in touch with Foot Solidaire.

With their help he is now studying and playing for an under-17 side in Paris, found for him by Michael Goba, a fellow Ivorian and the uncle of Chelsea World Cup star Didier Drogba.

"I do not understand what happened to me," says Yves, now 16. "But I will not give up."

Brutal Trials Dumped Dangers Studying

Curriculum Vitae
Name:................................... Tijani
Marital Status: ....................... Single
Date of Birth: .................. 4-09-2005
Position:.........................Midfielder
Weight: ..................................30LB
Height: ......................................2'5
Club: .... Super Star F.C. 2009-2010

Curriculum Vitae
Name:................................. Ismaila
Marital Status: ....................... Single
Date of Birth: .................. 13-9-2004
Position:............Supporting Striker
Weight: ..................................40LB
Height: ......................................2'5
Club: .... Super Star F.C. 2009-2010

HOPEFUL - kids must fill in the CV but the dream can become a nightmare

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South Africa desperately needs large-scale public infrastructure, especially in the area of public transport which is in some cities, including Johannesburg, is almost entirely absent.