Celebrating the World Cup does not mean we can’t ask hard questions . No, not that the annoying vuvuzelas are banned, but that thousands of informal traders will lose income because of Fifa-imposed “exclusion zones” around stadiums which permit only approved businesses, that street children are forcibly removed from Durban’s city centre, and in Cape Town, coloured working class residents living next to a football stadium where some teams will train, were evicted and dumped in a camp far away from their houses and work by the city’s Democratic Alliance-run council.
In town to give some context is political economist Patrick Bond. He’ll speak on these and other matters tonight at New York University:
The Radical Film & Lecture Series presents:
FIFA Politics: South African urban protests and the 2010 world cup
A seminar featuring Patrick Bond
Monday, April 5, 6:30pm
New York University, Sociology Department 295 Lafayette St., 4th Fl.
What is the basis for apparently endless protests in South Africa’s cities, ranging from radical social movements to anti-immigrant attacks? Given worsening urban poverty, massive unemployment, and rising inequality, will deep-rooted economic contradictions be amplified by the World Cup in June- July 2010, and can the state keep a lid on social unrest? Patrick Bond presents a paper on the political economy of urban crisis and resistance.
Patrick Bond is senior professor at the Univesity of KwaZulu-Natal School of Development Studies in Durban, South Africa, where since 2004 he has directed the Centre for Civil Society.
Even though I’m a committed fan of the the World Cup being held in SA, I have to admit to some serious misgivings about how the process is playing out. Other than for the prestige factor, most South Africans have been cut out of any tangible benefits. When this was first flighted several years ago, the talk was of the economic benefits that would accrue to SA citizens from construction and tourism. The stadiums are pretty much complete and the contracts went to large companies mostly foreign, with very little local sub-contracting. The much vaunted tourism boost doesn’t look like it will materialise except to benefit already established players in the industry. It’s clear there won’t be any overflow to small operations in the townships. The BRT systems in Johannesburg and Cape Town may have some long term benefits but I found it most telling that the Gautrain link from OR airport in Johannesburg goes to Sandton, not center city Johannesburg.