"Before the World Cup, they were coming here so ANC was saying, ‘What are these white people doing here in Phiri, because the whole world was watching?' We were sometimes singing when we were handing in the memorandums:
‘The whole world is watching, the whole world is watching. You are selling water, we are not going to vote because you are selling water'."
In June 2010, South Africa hosted the Soccer World Cup. By the time this mega-showpiece took place the South African government had spent almost R35 billion of public monies on hosting the event, most of which went towards building/renovating stadiums and roads.
At the same time the various city authorities removed hundreds of homeless people and banned informal seller/hawkers from making a living in and around the various stadia.
The APF, alongside a few other social movements, community organisations and hawkers associations conducted a series of educational and protest events around the World Cup in the months before it started; doing so in a generally difficult environment due to the popularity of soccer and the massive nationalist/patriotic propaganda emanating from the ANC and government.
“People are still suffering, people are still not having access to water, electricity and they are still facing evictions.”
