World Cup for All - Phansi Thiefa!
 - Durban Social Forum demands real development, not more elite profits

Memorandum of grievances

• Only th erich will score in 2010. People before profits, World Cup for all!
  The ANC has not given a World Cup for all, but again chose to deliver to the rich!
• Who can watch the live games?
  The rich sit in R3 billion stadiums. Only the elite are allowed to profit.
• It is illegal for ordinary people to make a living out of the World Cup
  - anyone caught will be fined and jailed. Locals, street traders, fisherfolk, vendors and artists' rights denied.
• Everything free for THIEFA; uninterrupted electricity
  - but electricity costs go up for us. No water, electricity, or health (care) for the poor. No facilities or services in poor areas!
• Building of schaools stopped for stadiums.
• R17 billion would house over one million people.
• Corruption whistle blowers asasssinated.
• Under-resourced, public hospitals forced to keep wards empty for players and tourists while treatment for the poor is deferred.
• Tax payers must maintain unused stadiums.
• New apartheid: forced removals of the poor, vulnerable, children, homeless, and refugees to 'transit camps'.
• Costs of living increases, but delivery and infrastructure not.
• Dereliction of police duties
  - crime increases, children targeted by traffickers and molesters, drunken driving, assaults, and abuse of women and children.
• Few short term benefits
  - huge long term costs. No country has benefited from big, international, sporting events; they are still in debt.
• High environmental costs while government paints green wash picture
• ANC government has sold South AFrica to brand FEEFA (FIFA)

Protest March
10 a.m.
16 June
Dinizulu Park (Botha's Gardens)

United community, youth, and worker struggle!
World Cup for all!

• Abahlali Base Mjondolo
• Abasha
• CCS
• SDN! KZN
• Clairwood Ratepayers Association
• Clairwood Social Forum
• Diakonia
• EcoPeace
• ELA-eThekwini
• EMM
• Support Committee
• KZN Sussistence Fishers
• Forum
• SMI
• SOPA
• SDCEA
• Streetnet
• Wentworth Development Forum
• WEstcliff Residents Association Women in Action
• Youth in Action

The Durban Social Forum consists of a number of civil society organisations. We will march peacefully on June 16 2010 to highlight the many long outstanding grievances of our communities and especially the youth. During the World Cup schools are closed; yet, there are valid fears of human trafficking. South Africa’s youth need education and real prospects, not prostitution, not army call-ups. Youth also demand delivery to the people not delivery to the rich elite and multinational corporations like FIFA.
 
Many of our grievances have been raised with various departments e.g. the Housing Department, with no joy received from the responsible officials. We have discovered a trend from eThekwini Metro to the KZN provincial government that unless grievances are raised by the alliance partners of the ruling party, communities that raise such grievances are ignored. We are always willing and available to discuss these issues with government. On the day of the march we will be expecting someone appointed directly by government to come and collect the memorandum of grievances. It is important to expose these matters to the entire world that will be watching the World Cup tournaments.

The Durban Social Forum’s World Cup for All Campaign is for delivery of community needs. We unite our many and varied struggles not to boycott or oppose the World Cup, but to raise attention to the fact that since South Africa can host a successful international 2010 World Cup, and build some of the best stadiums in the world, then all other delivery should be also accomplished within a minimum timeframe. For example, street traders must get their fare share – if we have money for stadiums, we should not have any homeless people or people having to live in shacks – if we can afford the World Cup, there should not be pot holes in the roads, electricity hikes, etc. etc. etc.

We ask all communities to send a message of support for this campaign together with their concerns and demands. We also ask for any creative ideas for alternative types of protests and actions. We want to present government with these demands in order to ask for written assurances of when they will live up to their commitments and duties to all the peoples and communities of South Africa. Please pass on this message to as many interested people as possible. Please support this campaign. This is NOT anti-SA, but a PRO-delivery campaign to try and attain better service delivery for ALL people in our country. We note with dismay that South Africa has the most unequal economy in the world.

Vulnerable children, traders, the homeless, and other ‘undesirable’ elements are being removed from our cities so tourists won’t be ‘offended’ by the sight of the less fortunate, or they prove an embarrassment to our government. A camp established to temporarily house approximately 400 during the World Cup has had over 1600 people dumped there by the “Cleaning up the City” drive. Conditions there are considerably worse than living on the street.

The needs of ALL South Africans have been negatively impacted in the long term by this mega-event - from earning potential, the provision of basic services, to impingement on press freedom, the burden of national debt, etc, while the much vaunted potential tourism revenue dwindles in comparison. Our government has sold its citizens out for a gigantic, short-term publicity stunt, and we must not let them forget their responsibilities. We have to ask about all the unfinished tasks of government:

• What about the poor, the shack dwellers, the homeless, the vulnerable children, the refugees? 
• We are very much concerned about issues such as human trafficking, and child prostitution since schools are closed while alcohol consumption is encouraged. Meanwhile the Police are redeployed from normal duties to devote service instead almost exclusively to THIEFA interests.
• We are concerned that resources that should have also gone to the poor are instead used to gain profits only for the already wealthy and an elite group of corrupt tenderpreneurs. Street traders, subsistence fisherfolk, artists and local businesses are denied their rights. 

Please join our endeavour to rather serve the least well off in our society.

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s) and not do necessarily reflect the views of the AfricaFiles' editors and network members. They are included in our material as a reflection of a diversity of views and a variety of issues. Material written specifically for AfricaFiles may be edited for length, clarity or inaccuracies.

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