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Dave Zirin Who will master the fate of World Cup 2010?

Jabulani – a Zulu word meaning rejoice – is the name of the game for this summer’s sports extravaganza. But spending millions to satisfy FIFA and little to help the extremely poor local population is no way to ensure joy and happiness in .

You see it the moment you walk off the plane: a mammoth soccer ball hanging from the ceiling of Johannesburg International Airport festooned with yellow banners that read, “2010 Let’s Go! World Cup!” If you swivel your head, you see that every immag- inable sponsor has joined the party – all branded with the FIFA seal. It’s when your head dips down that you see another, less sponsored, universe. Even inside this gleaming state-of-the-art airport, men

Dave Zirin is sports editor for The Nation ranging in age from 16 to 60 ask if they can shine

magazine and host of Sirius/XM’s Edge of your shoes, carry your bags, or even walk you to a

Sports Radio. cab. It’s the informal economy fighting for breathing room amidst the smothering sponsorship. Welcome to South Africa, a remarkable place of jagged contrasts: rich and poor, black and white, immigrant and everyone else. On a normal week, it’s the dispossessed and the self-possessed fighting for elbow room. Racist , as many are quick to point out, has been supplanted with econom- ic apartheid in South Africa. You see evidence of this everywhere you go. It is not un- common – but nevertheless entirely tragic – to hear black South Africans say that in some parts of their lives, it was better under apartheid. As mentioned, these are the normal conditions, the normal contrasts. But the 2010 World Cup has taken these contrasts and propelled them into conflict. The present situation in South Africa could be called “Invictus in reverse”. 115-120 Zirin Dave n 47-48 ing 9-05-2010 18:00 Pagina 116

INVICTUS IN REVERSE. For those who haven’t had the pleasure, the film Invic- tus is about the way used sport – particularly the near all-white sport of rugby – to unite the country after the fall of apartheid. The coming World Cup has, in contrast, provoked efforts to camouflage every conflict and present the image of a united nation to the world. As Danny Jordaan, the World Cup’s lead South African or- ganizer said, “People will see we are African. We are world-class.” Note that the concern is about what the world sees – not what South Africans see. What South Africans see, as one young man told me, is, “Football looting our coun- try.” The contrasts are becoming conflicts because the government, at the behest of FIFA, is determined to put on a good show, no matter the social cost. There are the dispossessions by the thousands, as people are forced from their homes into makeshift shantytowns, both to make way for stadiums and to make sure that tourists don’t have to see any depressing scenes of poverty. The United Nations even issued a complaint on behalf of the 20,000 people removed from the settle- ment in , called an “eyesore” by World Cup organizers. There are the homeless who will be packed into settlements hundreds of miles from 116 the action. As Johannesburg councillor Sipho Masigo said about the removal of the poor, “Homelessness and begging are big problems in the city. You have to clean your house before you have guests. There is nothing wrong with that.” There is the crackdown on people who make their living selling goods by the stadi- ums. Regina Twala who has been vending outside soccer matches for almost 40 years, has been told that she and others must be at least one kilometer from the stadiums at all times. She said to the Sunday Independent, “They say they do not want us here. They do not want us near the stadium and we have to close the whole place.” In ad- dition, FIFA has pushed the South African government to announce that they would ar- rest any vendors that sell products emblazoned with the words “World Cup” or even the date “2010”. One woman who works in a clothing factory told of her manager looking on hurriedly to make sure that 2010 didn’t find its way on to any of the labels. Samson, a trader in , said to me, “This is the way we have always done busi- ness by the stadium. Who makes the laws now: FIFA?”

SPECIAL LAWS. Samson was only referencing the threats toward vendors, but he could have been speaking about the series of laws South Africa has passed to prepare for the tournament. Declaring the World Cup a “protected event”, the government, in line with FIFA requirements, has passed by-laws that “spell out where people may 115-120 Zirin Dave n 47-48 ing 9-05-2010 18:00 Pagina 117

drive and park their cars, where they may and may not trade or advertise, and where they may walk their dogs.” They’ve made clear that beggars – or even those caught using foul language (assumedly off the field of play) – could be subject to arrest. Then there are the assassinations. In a story that has garnered international news but little buzz in the United States, for example, two people on a list of twenty have been assassinated for “whistle-blowing” on suspected corruption in the construction of

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the 150 million dollar Mbombela Stadium. The Sunday World newspaper attained the list, which included two journalists and numerous political leaders. There are accusations swirling that the list is linked to the ruling African National Congress, which the ANC has denied in bizarre terms: “The ANC wants to reiterate its condem- nation of any murder of any person no matter what the motive may be,” said spokesperson Paul Mbenyane. It’s never a good sign when you have to make clear that you are anti-murder. To add to this specter of political violence, an extremist right-wing organization, the Suidlanders, was found to be stockpiling arms – described as “explosives and thou- sands of rounds of ammunition” – in advance of the tournament. Since the death of white supremacist leader Eugène Terre’Blanche, the Suidlanders have had meetings around the country. They are trying to have people boycott the World Cup in solidari- ty with their cause. “The time has come for people to realize they cannot be on the side- 115-120 Zirin Dave n 47-48 ing 9-05-2010 18:00 Pagina 118

line any longer and everybody’s participation is needed to defend the last bastion of a true Christian nation against total annihilation”, says the statement on their website.

UGLY GHOSTS. All of these steps – displacements, crackdowns on informal trade, the rise of a terrorist white majority, even accusations of state-sponsored assassina- tions – have an echo for people from the days of apartheid. Responsibility for this state of affairs falls firmly on the shoulders of FIFA but also on the ANC. I saw this myself when I took a private tour of the breathtaking 457 million dollar Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, South Africa. After the tour I left utterly stunned, for both better and worse. Named after the late leader of the South African Commu- nist Party, the stadium is a stylistic masterpiece. The eggshell white facility is visible for miles, rising from the earth in milky waves, contrasting sharply with its dusty, ur- ban environs. The open roof has a graceful, slender arc connecting one side of the sta- dium to the other. The arc itself is a wonder: starting as one clean curve, it then splits into two separate stretches of white. This is an homage to the post-apartheid South African flag, with the stripes meant to symbolize, as the government website states, 118 “the convergence of diverse elements within South African society, taking the road ahead in unity.” Well-heeled adrenalin junkies can even go to the top of the arc and bungee-swing across the pitch. On one side of the stadium, behind the goal, is a completely open vista in the shape of a mammoth square, giving on to the Durban skyline. But the true engineering achievement of Moses Mabhida Stadium are the bleachers. They angle up with such subtlety that the effect is of a saucer instead of a bowl. Every one of the 74,000 seats has a picture perfect sightline on the action, whether you are in the nosebleeds or the corporate boxes. The seats themselves are painted in rich colors: the first level is roy- al blue to represent the ocean, the middle ones are green to signify the land, and the top is brown, as a sportswriter said to me, “so it looks full on television.” The most striking color in the stadium is not in the bleachers, though. It’s the grass. The grass is a green so bright it hurts the eyes, with every blade appearing as if it were painstakingly colored with a magic marker. This has been created with the aid ofnear- infinite gallons of crystal clear water, which I saw constantly irrigating the field.

RESOURCES VS IMAGE. I raise the issue of the stadium’s incomparable beauty because South African politicians in support of the World Cup accuse detractors of what they call “Afro-pessimism”. They claim that critics lack the faith that South 115-120 Zirin Dave n 47-48 ing 9-05-2010 18:00 Pagina 119

Africa can host an event of this magnitude. This critique is now also being used in a more dramatic fashion against the racists of Europe and their own white minority. If the World Cup “loses”, Africa loses and then the bad guys win. To see a country already dotted with perfectly usable stadiums spend approximately 6 billion US dollars on new facilities is to notice a squandering of resources that is un- conscionable. To see endless gallons of water wasted on the soccer pitch, in a coun- try where lack of access to water is spurring protests throughout the townships, is to recognize a reckless disregard for the people’s needs. As Simon Magagula, who lives in a mud house near one of the new stadiums, said to The New York Times: “We’ve been promised a better life, but look how we live. If you pour water into a glass, you can see things moving inside.” To see an architectural marvel like Moses Mabhida Stadium in a country where ac- cess to clean and affordable shelter is a pipe-dream for so many is to witness the in- terests of government colliding with the people they’ve been elected to serve. And to see a stadium named in honor of Moses Mabhida, who symbolizes anti-poverty strug- gles for millions of South Africans, is to stare at irony in its most lurid form. As the price and the demands made by FIFA grow more onerous, many are having sec- 119 ond thoughts. Zayn Nabbi, the sports correspondent for South Africa’s E Television, gave me the stadium tour. Nabbi looked around and said, “The Moses Mabhida Sta- dium, structurally, is brilliant. World class. However, when you think about the cost in a country with so much damaged public service, it’s difficult to think that this was right. There are areas in dire need of funding. We were all so caught up in the love story of winning the World Cup – the romance of it all – we didn’t grasp (or we weren’t told about) the repercussions. We all got caught up in the spin. I put myself in that category certainly. The hangover when this is all done will be brutal, man.” This may be one of those times when the hangover starts before the party is even over. Townships organizations have already called for protests during the World Cup if de- mands for basic public services aren’t met. That’s what happens when the water for the grass is clean but the wells of drinking water – along with FIFA’s politics – are ab- solutely filthy. These stark contrasts have provoked a fierce, and wholly predictable resistance. In a normal month, South Africa has more protests per capita than any nation on earth. But when you factor in the World Cup crackdown, a simmering nation can explode. Over 70,000 workers have taken part in strikes connected to World Cup projects since the preparations have begun, with 26 strikes since 2007. On March 4, 2010, more than 115-120 Zirin Dave n 47-48 ing 9-05-2010 18:00 Pagina 120

250 people – in a press conference featuring representatives from four provinces – threatened to protest the opening game of the Cup unless their various demands were met. These protests should not be taken lightly. A woman named Lebo said to me, “We have learned in South Africa that unless we burn tires, unless we fight police, unless we are willing to return violence on violence, we will never be heard.” Patrick Bond, from the Center Civil Society in Durban, said to me that protests should be expected: “Anytime you have three billion people watching, that’s called lever- age.” Indeed. There is a scene in Invictus where Motgan Freeman’s Mandela – quot- ing from the poem that gave the film its title – says, “I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul [...] I am the master of my fate.” The people of South Africa still consider themselves unconquerable, whether they face apartheid, FIFA, or their current government. But FIFA insists with equal insistence that the World Cup will brook no dissent. We’ll find out who masters the fate of this beloved country.

120 Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley, 1875