The football World Cup is coming to South Africa in June this year. It is set to focus the eyes of the world upon the country once again. What they will see is the return of a practice closely associated with apartheid South Africa – the forced removal of black people from their homes.Huge shanty towns are being set up as dumping grounds for the urban poor, forcing them out of the way of the massive stadiums and other construction projects. Thirty kilometres from Cape Town city centre is a place locals call Blikkiesdorp – the “tin can town”. Here there are row upon row of three by six metre tin shacks, housing whole families in one room. They’re made out of zinc so thin you can cut through the walls with a pair of scissors. The shacks stand on a vast dust plain without electricity, lighting or washing facilities. One toilet and cold water tap is shared between at least four families. It is miles away from any work and there are poor transport links. Many of the occupants have HIV/Aids, but can’t get to a clinic. The South African press has labelled these areas “concentration camps” because they are fenced in and patrolled by police.
SociaistWorker online February 2010 | issue 2188
A ruthless racist system was beaten by the mobilisation of black workers and community revolt. But the failure to attack and overcome capitalism means that inequality remains. The arrival of the World Cup on South Africa’s shores has served to remind people of what happens when neoliberalsim rules. When the cheers die down and the visitors leave, what will remain is the intense and growing divide between rich and poor. The reality is that, after 46 years of apartheid and 15 years of free-market capitalism, South Africans are still waiting for freedom.
World Cup organiser Fifa makes 94 percent of its income from sponsorship deals – and enforces its “rights” ruthlessly. In South Africa Fifa is talking about clamping down on “event pirates” who, they argue, “seek to profit from an event to which they have contributed nothing”. Tell that to the people who have been driven out of their homes. There are half a million street traders in South Africa. Their work is a vital means of survival for millions of people and their families. In Kwazulu Natal, 28,000 tonnes of cooked mielies – corn on the cob – is sold on the street every day. Street sellers making cheap food for construction workers on stadium sites have been driven out, as companies bring in expensive private catering firms. Fifa will be insisting that any “unofficial” street vendors be excluded from the stadium zones. It wants poor South Africans to be well out of the way of the thousands of people who will fly in to watch the matches.
SociaistWorker online February 2010 | issue 2188
Et tu Brutus??? World Cup has hardly begun and I just had enough. As Gloria Gayner sang... Enough is Enough!!!
Anyway... I enjoy the two realities shown through and projected by the mirror. Well done!!
Posted by: JG | 12/06/2010 at 18:35