At long last, soccer fans, the moment is here. On Friday, when South Africa takes the field against Mexico, the World Cup will officially be underway. Nothing attracts the global gaze quite like it. Nothing creates such an undeniably electric atmosphere with enough energy to put British Petroleum, Exxon/Mobil and Chevron out of business for good.
And finally, after 80 years, the World Cup has come to Africa. We should take a moment to celebrate that this most global of sports has finally made its way to the African continent, nesting in the bucolic country of South Africa. And yet as we celebrate the Cup's long-awaited arrival in the cradle of civilization, there are realities on the ground that would be insane to ignore. To paraphrase an old African saying, "When the elephants party, the grass will suffer." In the hands of FIFA and the ruling African National Congress, the World Cup has been a neoliberal Trojan Horse, enacting a series of policies that the citizens of this proud nation would never have accepted if not wrapped in the honor of hosting the Cup. This includes $9.5 billion in state deficit spending ($4.3 billion in direct subsidies and another $5.2 billion in luxury transport infrastructure). This works out to about $200 per citizen.
As the Anti-Privatization Forum of South Africa has written:
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.
In South Africa, the ANC government has a word for those who would dare raise these concerns. They call it "Afropessimism." If you dissent from being an uncritical World Cup booster, you are only feeding the idea that Africa is not up to the task of hosting such an event. Danny Jordaan the portentously titled chief executive officer of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africa, lamented to Reuters, "For the first time in history, Africa really will be the centre of the world's attention -- for all the right reasons -- and we are looking forward to showing our continent in its most positive light."
To ensure that the "positive light" is the only light on the proceedings, the government has suspended the right to protest for a series of planned demonstrations. When the APF marches to present their concerns, they will be risking arrest or even state violence. Against expectations, they have been granted the right to march, but only if they stay at least 1.5 km from FIFA headquarters in Soccer City. If they stray a step closer, it's known that the results could be brutal.
You could choke on the irony. The right to protest was one of the major victories after the overthrow of apartheid. The idea that these rights are now being suspended in the name of "showing South Africa...in a positive light" is reality writ by Orwell.
Yet state efforts to squelch dissent have been met with resistance. Last month, there was a three-week transport strike that won serious wage increases for workers. The trade union federation, COSATU, has threatened to break with the ANC and strike during the World Cup if double digit electricity increases aren't lowered. The National Health and Allied Workers Union have also threatened to strike later this month if they don't receive pay increases 2% over the rate of inflation.
In addition, June 16th is the anniversary of the Soweto uprising, which saw 1,000 school children murdered by the apartheid state in 1976. It is a traditional day of celebration and protest. This could be a conflict waiting to happen, and how terrible it would be if the ANC wields the clubs this time around.
The anger flows from a sentiment repeated to me time and again when I walked the streets of this remarkable, resilient, country. Racial apartheid is over, but it's been replaced by a class apartheid that governs people's lives. Since the fall of the apartheid regime, white income has risen by 24% while black wealth has actually dropped by 1%. But even that doesn't tell the whole story since there has been the attendant development of a new black political elite and middle class. Therefore, for the mass of people, economic conditions -- unemployment, access to goods and services -- has dramatically worsened. This is so utterly obvious that even the Wall Street Journal published a piece titled, As World Cup Opens, South Africa's Poor Complain of Neglect. The article quotes Maureen Mnisi, a spokeswoman for the Landless People's Movement in Soweto saying, "At least under apartheid, there was employment -- people knew where to go for jobs. Officials were accountable." Anytime someone has to start a sentence with "At least under apartheid..." that in and of itself is a searing indictment of an ANC regime best described as isolated, sclerotic, and utterly alienated from its original mission of a South Africa of shared prosperity. A major party is coming to South Africa. But it's the ANC that will have to deal with the hangover.
Originally published on thenation.com
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I'm a US citizen living in SA (24+ yrs) and have seen both sides of Apartheid, before and after. 24% increase in white wealth??? Truth? Financial failure among whites compares closely to the foreclosure market in the US and my black neighbors (very nice people) drive new BMWs and Polos. They paid a chunk for their house and their good fortune is the direct result of a free market system not equal opportunity (which I'm not opposed to). They are representative not anomalous.
And the developments spurred by the WC have benefitted many people from the lowest economical levels. A requirement on every project for every sub contractor was credible skills training for workers, on and off the job, paid for by the contractor. Not bad for a free market.
Under the APF the situation would be "reality writ Stalin!"
For the record no one is allowed closer than 1.5 kilometers to the stadiums and can walk through that area ONLY if you park in the designated areas and have a ticket to prove it. It is a security measure NOT CAPITALIST CONTROL and all sensible people, APF notwithstanding, agree with it!
As for brutalizing protesters don't worry about the government. Spectators will be throwing most of the rocks. Remember this. One can choke just as easily on philosophical stupidity as they can on irony.
Are there problems in SA? Yes. Are positive changes occurring? Without doubt!
Casualties
The accounts of how many people died vary from 200 to 600[10], with Reuters news agency currently reporting there were "more than 500" fatalities in the 1976 riots. The original government figure claimed only 23 students were killed. The number of wounded was estimated to be over a thousand men, women, and children.
Not 1000 killed.
It is such a pity that Mandela, that grand old and wise man, did not have the reform genius needed to make a sustainable South Africa, and allowed it to fall into incompetent ANC hands. Only COSATU can offer resistance to the ANC, but their influence is constantly under threat.
For those of you that do not know this wonderful and beautiful country, it is NOT real Africa. The difference is palpable and striking as you cross the Limpopo river into South Africa. It is as if comparing Poland with Bavaria (no disrespect to Poles intended).
There has been a large white brain drain, and the government's positive discrimination means that most of the remaining and older whites need to work for themselves or with larger companies.
As such the younger and brightest remaining end up as academics or advisors to their black ministerial masters, but they will never be fully accepted.
This is the heritage that was known to be in the frame for all thinking English, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch settlers throughout Africa, though only fools did not believe it would not happen in South Africa.
This post also demonstrates wishful thinking and total ignorance. There is no chance at all, whatsoever, of there being any kind of combustible atmosphere next Wednesday, the public holiday that marks the 16 June 1976 unrest. South Africa's youth continually demonstrate not only disinterest in 1976, but most do not even know what it was about and what happened.
When I remonstrate with people who work for me about not knowing about the struggle and what others sacrificed, I get blank stares. Sorry to say for those wishful-thinking latter day revolutionaries, but the kind of unrest or revolution you're thinking of just won't happen.
If you relied on something more than a fringe left group for your informaiton and analysis, you'd discover some really interesting and alarming stuff.
The first game kicked off just over an hour ago, but already in the past week I've seen hundreds of pieces by foreign journalists and analysts who think they're so smart and profound to point out contradictions of hosting this event in a developing country.
Please, people. We live these contradictions every day. You prove nothing by pointing out the obvious just to show you're aware and concerned. The event is happening. We got everything done. South Africa just scored against Mexico. Go away and come back later to remind us about the poverty we live with every day.
The awkward question remains the same one: at the end of the rainbow, is the pot half-full or half-empty?
When I decided to leave many years ago, I did so because I had decided that for the majority it would remain half-empty or worse and that there was precious little to suggest South Africans were so much more advanced than the rest of mankind to actually share the wealth more equitably and truly advance the cause of the whole.
For all that, I would not wish to detract for one second from the spirit of hope that will engulf the country for the next few weeks. But I would stress to all those who consider that country just another investment opportunity or a tourist destination: there are awesome challenges still ahead for South Africans. And far more desperate than the likelihood that Green Point Stadium will ever be full again any time soon.
BTW: How ironic that when the World Cup fever subsides the stadia that will be left might be referred to as "white elephants" ...
And a short 5-minute subway ride away - that is also rapidly becoming unaffordable for many - one can observe misery, begging (panhandling it is called here - sounds better, I guess) the homeless and other conditions one would expect in third-world countries, not in the Country that describes itself as the leader of the free world.
So what's the difference, really?
NOSMAVAN
Whether one agree with the cost of hosting the WC, the excitement and national bonding across racial boundaries has been amazing.
I would also like to add that anyone who seizes on the phrase "at least under apartheid" as some way of justifying it, still hasn't understood the horrific crime that that they casually dismiss as a "political" option.