*SASCO PRESS STATEMENT:* *Soccer World Cup a waste of money * *14 July 2010*
South Africa has done tremendously well in hosting the FIFA Soccer World Cup defying doomsayers and Afro-pessimists. Rather than be proud, it is the pessimists who should be ashamed of themselves for even thinking that an entire nation would not be able to host a World Cup simply because it is located in the African Continent. Apart from the pride and joy we ought to ordinarily feel for hosting this World Cup we also ought to be particularly ashamed that we spent billions of public funds on stadiums that will immediately turn into white elephants after the World Cup and whose maintenance will be costly for years to come. It is not just wrong but naked carelessness to starve the country simply for the prestige of hosting a World event. Instead of wasting money on stadiums and other related luxurious infrastructure, we could have used the same money, energy, zeal and enthusiasm to provide water, electricity, houses and free education for millions of poor South Africans. Never before have we seen the state as efficient as when meeting FIFA deadlines, while on the other hand, carelessness, scapegoat-hunting and sheer laziness are the order of the day in providing basic services. We hope this efficiency would reflect itself in the manner in which basic services are provided. Now that the World Cup is over, it is clear that the mobilization of the South African population to support the World Cup bid on the basis that it will benefit the poor was based on a naked lie. The poor have not benefited financially nor have they enjoyed the honeymoon of the past month except on TV and Fan-Parks. Match tickets were far too expensive while street vendors could not even muster enough funds to sell products at the Fan-Parks. Once more, the capitalist class has accumulated, and the working class has been left empty-handed but has been frog-marched to celebrate accumulation of the capitalist class. *For details Contact* *Mbulelo Mandlana (President)* *071 879 3408 * *Or* *Lazola Ndamase (Secretary General)* *082 679 8718* -- Gugu Ndima +27 76 783 1516 -- Gugu Ndima +27 76 783 1516 -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
