10th June 2010
MARCH TOMORROW NEAR SOCCER CITY
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
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.
For comment/further information contact:
Sithembiso Nhlapo - 078 148 0153
Dubheza(at)gmail(dot)com
Mashao Chauke - 082 212 6518
Chaukemash(at)gmail(dot)com
Sipho Magudulela - 074 938 2145
si.magudulela(at)webmail(dot)co(dot)za
