Activists and journalists in South Africa have for some time been publishing accounts of forced evictions of shack dwellers to make way for the World Cup. There are also accounts of corrupt land deals backed up by lethal enforcers.

In the New York Times on March 12 2010, Barry Bearak [1] wrote; "Come June, soccer’s World Cup will be hosted by South Africa. Though only 4 of the 64 games are to be played here in Nelspruit, a $137 million stadium was built for the occasion.

“No point in trying to hide it, there was a total collapse of good governance, primarily around the World Cup,” said Lassy Chiwayo, Nelspruit’s mayor, who was installed as an emergency caretaker in late 2008 after his predecessor was removed.

Independent investigators into the matter found that millions of dollars had been misspent on big contracts. Their final report calls for criminal charges against the former municipal manager and the directors of three companies managing the stadium project.

The Nelspruit area, which lies in the country’s east and has a population of 600,000, has been home to a long feud between rival members of South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress. The antagonists want a bigger share of patronage and other spoils. Killings seem to have been used as a tactic.

The Sunday Times recently quoted a repentant Mozambican assassin who asserted that he was hired by top-level politicians and businessmen to kill their adversaries, describing his profession as the work of a “cleaner.”

In January 2009, the speaker of the municipal assembly, Jimmy Mohlala, was gunned down in front of his house. He had gathered evidence about stadium deals and declared that he was ready to name names and shame the shameless." NY Times

An excellent documentary film Fahrenheit 2010 [2] which deals with these issues was released in January this year. It can be watched online for a fee of £1.

[2].: Opening day of the Poor Peoples World Cup

Activists of the Western Cape Anti-eviction Campaign have recently organised a 'Poor Peoples World Cup'. [3] They "successfully kicked-off their first day of matches at the Avendale soccer fields, next to Athlone stadium in Cape Town. Early in the morning, the first minibuses with soccer teams arrived from all over Cape Town to play their first games in this Poor People’s tournament. Everybody was excited and the atmosphere was amazing, considering the bad weather forecasts."

Video [4]

See also: Mail & Guardian 2010 investigations [5]

Andrew Jennings [6]

A political economy of FIFA's African adventure [7]

The Race to Transform, sport in post apartheid South Africa [8] edited by Ashwin Desai, "takes stock of sport in South Africa, and provides a pioneering exploration of how sport reflects matters such as enduring inequality, racial transformation and the making (or otherwise) of a common South African destiny." It is available for free download from the Human Sciences Research Council. Attached below are the Introduction and Chapter 4 of this book.