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africanews

As the Soccer City Stadium switched off its lights after the last whistle of the 2010 World Cup on July 11, football fans and sport analysts ponder over some questions: Will the 2010 FIFA World Cup benefit South Africa? Will this benefit filter down to middle-class South Africans and people living in impoverished townships?

Selay Marius Kouassi, AfricaNews reporter, investigates into these from Tokoza, one of the poorest townships and the former stronghold of the ruling African National Congress fighters, in the outskirts of Johannesburg.

The South African government invested billions of Rands [the official currency] into the construction of fancy stadiums and other sport facilities to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Ironically, the ‘Rainbow Nation’ has entered the history of football, being the first country to hold a FIFA World Cup and not being able to reach the knock out stage.

Many South African football fans followed the 2010 FIFA World Cup at home or at a fan park, as many of them cannot afford to buy a ticket to one of South-Africa’s fancy stadiums.

Yet, there are die hard supporters of the senior national team Bafana Bafana.

“I enjoy the World Cup and I am happy that South Africa hosts it… even our stadia are beautiful, but for me, it look like they are abroad because I can’t afford to buy a ticket and watch the game there, I am always watching them on TV,” said Johannes Metula, a.k.a ‘Myza’, a former ANC fighter, commander of one of the SDUs (Self-Defense Units – ANC armed wing).

Myza is a Tokoza township dweller; one of the poorest townships on the edge of Johannesburg.

Unemployed and left with the unkept promises of the South African government, Myza and his friends are quick to show their support for Bafana Bafana. Actually, hope for better life kept them cheering ‘The boys’.

“We have been living from hands to mouth, but we realized that the government had the potential of meeting the demands of the FIFA body; they build stadia and other facilities to host the World Cup. They told us to gather behind the national team and after the game the whole country will benefit from the hosting,” noted the former ANC fighter.

Struggle

Most of ANC former fighters whose struggle ensured apartheid was overthrown and the 2010 FIFA World Cup could in fact happen in a democratic South Africa are still leaving in one-room shacks with no running water or electricity.

Many say they have languished for years at the bottom of waiting lists for decent housing. They were left behind while others enjoyed a decade of continuous economic growth that created a burgeoning black middle class.
With no education and qualifications (most of them left school because of the fight), these forgotten heroes hope to find job opportunity to eke out a living in a country already witnessing a soaring unemployment rate.

Myza, is one of these embittered people who, in his own words, “have been ignored by people they helped take power and also by people they protected.” He is striving to be a musician but he cannot afford to travel to Johannesburg in search of a producer.

The number of tourists visiting South Africa during the World Cup has been impressive and raked in a lot of foreign currencies into the economy. However, the impact of the first World Cup to be he held on African soil cannot be judged simply on the number of international visitors arriving at the country’s airports.

Football fans and tourists, who landed in gleaming airports across the country, who slept in five-star hotels and luxury guest houses and who ran errands in modern malls will never see the conditions that many South Africans have to cope with in tin shacks in Tokoza Township.

“We’re not asking for everything from the government! All we need is decent housing and employment,” Myza stated.

It appears the locals are still living in abject poverty before, during and after the World Cup. Now that the tourists are departing one after the other the real impact can be measured especially in poverty-stricken areas like Tokoza Township.