16 July 2010
Public Money, Lost Livelihoods & Evictions
Ashraf Cassiem of the Cape Town-based Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign discusses the impact of the World Cup on South Africa in an audio interview (http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/490/Ashraf_Amandla.mp3) [mp3] with Zahra Moloo. In his view, the country, and especially the poor, stand to lose as a result of hosting the World Cup. He highlights the vast amount of public resources spent on the tournament, the loss of livelihoods by traders and the eviction of the
poor from public land adjoining stadium sites as prime examples of this. Cassiem also talks about the Poor People’s World Cup organised by communities, with teams representing, in solidarity, ‘countries in struggles’, such as Palestine, Zimbabwe and Somalia.