IN the years leading up to the World Cup, South Africans weren’t only excited about international football teams and stars visiting our shores, but about the opportunities that hosting the biggest sporting event on
the globe would bring.
IN the years leading up to the World Cup, South Africans weren’t only excited about international football teams and stars visiting our shores, but about the opportunities that hosting the biggest sporting event on
the globe would bring.
According to a wellpublicised forecast released in December last year by Grant Thornton tourism expert Gillian Saunders, the tournament is expected to contribute R55.7-billion to the gross domestic product (GDP).
More importantly for the average South African, this will result in the creation of 415 400 jobs. In addition, it was assumed that millions would benefit directly from the more than R14-billion visitors are expected to spend. South Africans have since, however, found that the excitement is short-lived.
With an unemployment rate of just over 23% (eight million of the economically-active population), the prospect of new jobs was welcomed by the country but with the building of stadiums completed and infrastructure projects nearing an end, thousands will now find themselves out of work.
In KwaZulu-Natal many are now unemployed now that the Moses Mabhida stadium is complete. The National Union of Mineworkers reported that at least 60% of the union’s 60 000 members working on 2010 stadiums, airports, roads and power stations would be unemployed when their contracts end.
According to government plans, workers should be absorbed by companies if they have gained sufficient skills training while employed.
Government feels that private companies are failing to introduce new projects to take over when these development projects end. And while construction workers get a very limited piece of the World Cup money cake, hawkers might not get anything at all.
Informal traders who expect to profit from visiting tourists are going to be thwarted by Fifa’s “commercial exclusion zones” and the newly-introduced municipal by-laws during the event.
In exclusion zones, stadiums, their immediate vicinities, fan parks and public viewing areas only official sponsors have the right to promote their products.
Host cities have signed agreements with Fifa to protect the governing body’s intellectual property and events rights.
Under new laws, informal traders have been removed from areas with the most traffic and will find that terms such as World Cup, 2010, Fifa and 2010 South Africa in any advertising or merchandising without a Fifa license is illegal. Municipalities in Polokwane have already told hawkers to vacate key areas.
In reaction, Cosatu and other lobby groups are vehemently opposing such decisions, arguing that the traders have used these areas for years and deserved to profit from the World Cup.
Most host cities, like Johannesburg, have insisted that there will be sufficient opportunity for informal traders to benefit, so long as they follow by-laws and make use of programmes designed by the Department for Economic Development.
“It is not the intention of the city to disrupt the livelihoods of street traders, particularly those who usually trade in areas zoned as controlled access sites or exclusion zones,” said the executive director of the city’s 2010 Office, Sibongile Mazibuko.
