Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign

Wednesday last week, we planned to have a march to the Mayor to invite him to our Poor People’s World Cup. Unfortunately we heard that the mayor was not there to accept our memorandum. This is why we have chosen to reschedule the march to this week. On Friday the 2nd of July 2010 at 10 AM we are going to march with 500 residents from Blikkiesdorp and from surrounding communities affected by the FIFA World Cup, to the Civic Centre to hand over a memorandum to the mayor at 10.45 AM.

Information about the march: This march is organized by the Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign to invite Dan Plato and FIFA to the finals of the Poor People’s World Cup.

Furthermore, this march is to support all the displaced communities now living in Blikkiesdorp (the Symphony Way TRA, 20 km away from the city centre) as a result of World Cup regeneration projects. Many of these residents were promised proper houses before moving to this “concentration camp” with tin can structures – far away from the city centre and from job opportunities, good education, their social networks, etc.

In solidarity with these residents now living in this relocation area – soccer teams, coaches and communities that are involved in the Poor People’s World Cup plus the informal traders affected by the FIFA World Cup – will also support and join this march on Friday! The Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign invites all the media to this march and everyone who wants to support this march is more than welcome!!

Location: the march will proceed at 10 AM from Cape Town’s Keizersgracht (close to Cape Peninsula University) to the Civic Centre to hand over a memorandum to Mayor Dan Plato at 10.45 AM.

***Important notification*** The third Poor People’s World Cup was unfortunately cancelled last Sunday, because we were unable to get a venue. The next (3rd) tournament will be held on Sunday 4 July 2010 at 9 AM in Delft Central Sports Field (main road in Delft).

March to invite Dan Plato and FIFA to the Poor People’s World Cup

At the moment 1000 to 1500 residents from Blikkiesdorp and surrounding communities are preparing themselves for tomorrow as they will march to Dan Plato to hand over a memorandum. This march is organized by the Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign to invite Dan Plato and FIFA to the finals of the Poor People’s World Cup on July 4, 2010.

Furthermore, this march is to support all the displaced communities now living in Blikkiesdorp (the Symphony Way TRA, 20 km away from the city centre) as a result of World Cup regeneration projects. Many of these residents were promised proper houses before moving to this “concentration camp” with tin can structures – far away from the city centre and from job opportunities, good education, their social networks, etc.

In solidarity with these residents now living in this relocation area – soccer teams, coaches and communities that are involved in the Poor People’s World Cup – will also support and join this march tomorrow.

The Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign invites all the media to this march and everyone who wants to support this march is more than welcome!!

Location: at 7 AM we will gather in Blikkiesdorp. The march will proceed from Cape Town’s Keizersgracht (close to Cape Peninsula University) to the Civic Centre to hand over a memorandum to Mayor Dan Plato.

For more information, please contact: Jane Roberts 0742384236 (AEC coordinator for the Delft area), Kareema 078 6207365 (resident of Blikkiesdorp) or Ashraf Cassiem 0761861408 (chairperson AEC)

At the shadow side of the mountain, 36 teams from 40 different communities came together yesterday to play the one thing they like the most: SOCCER!

On the 13^th of June 2010, the Poor People’s World Cup 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.

At the meeting where the programme of the day was discussed, the coordinators explained that this tournament is not only for the soccer teams, but also for the whole community and for the people who struggle everyday against water and electricity cut-offs and against evictions from their homes and working places. The message during the meeting was clear: while the poor people in Cape Town and in South Africa as a whole are suffering, the rich are enjoying themselves in the expensive stadiums at the expenses of the poor.

 After we stood still at these facts, we moved on with inspiring speeches from Martin Legassick (housing activist/ UWC Emeritus Professor), Michael Premo (Housing is a Human Right) and Ashraf Cassiem (Chairperson/coordinator of the Anti-Eviction Campaign). Besides all the 36 teams and their supporters from their communities, this event also attracted local and international journalists, researchers and international radio and television broadcasters.

All the traders and communities – that were negatively affected by FIFA related urban renewal projects and by the implemented by-laws – were invited to this tournament: a tournament that is FREE and open to everybody. Because this tournament is by and for the local communities, international branches are the only ones that are excluded from these areas as they robbed our informal traders from their livelihoods! All the money that tourist spend there, won’t benefit the local economy but will flow back overseas.

Therefore, in contrast to the FIFA World Cup, we have created our own contra-World Cup for the poor communities by the poor communities that is not exploiting people or marginalizing people, but involving people and creating new spaces of exposure and participation.

For the second day of the Poor People’s World Cup, we invite all the local and international media to our tournament, to provide our soccer teams and our (evicted) communities and traders a platform were they can give voice to their stories, their struggles and what brought them together to join the PPWC and the march (23 June). We further invite international football teams and scouts to come to our games, to talk and to play football with our local teams and to fulfil the dreams of many soccer players; as this will create a once in a life time opportunity for them to meet their favourite soccer teams.

To all the tourists: don’t  stay only in the controlled spaces bounded by FIFA rules and regulations, but move beyond these areas to experience the true spirit of what the game of soccer is all about!! Come to our Poor People’s World Cup next Sunday in Delft and support your favourite team/country!!! Through this support you can let these communities feel and know that people care about them and that they are not forgotten.

We hope to welcome you all (again) next Sunday at 10 AM at the Delft Central Sports Field (main road in Delft)!

For more information, please contact one of the AEC coordinators: Pamela Beukes: 078 5563003, Jane Roberts 074 2384236 (coordinator for the Delft area), Mncedisi Twalo 078 5808646, Gary Hartzenberg 072 3925859, or Willie Heyn 073 1443619. Ashraf Cassiem is unfortunately not available until Sunday, June 20.

The Poor Peoples World Cup

After months of organizing a World Cup that is accessible for all the poor communities who won’t be able to see their favourite soccer teams playing in Cape Town’s expensive Greenpoint Stadium – there are only a few hours left until the kick-off of the PPWC starts!

This Poor Peoples World Cup is organized, because we feel that we are excluded from the FIFA World Cup 2010. We see that the government has put enormous amounts of money in Greenpoint Stadium and in upgrading Althone stadium, but we as poor communities don’t benefit from all of these investments. The soccer matches will be played in town, but we don’t have tickets or transport to go there. Besides this, the FIFA World Cup has negatively impacted our communities as we are not allowed to trade near stadiums, fan parks and other tourist areas anymore. The poor are not only evicted from their trading spaces for the World Cup, we are also evicted from our homes and relocated to the TRA’s, such as Blikkiesdorp, far away from the centre and from job opportunities and from the eyes of the tourists..

We as the Anti-Eviction Campaign and affected communities therefore decided to create our own World Cup: A World Cup that is accessible for everyone!! We therefore invited all the evicted traders to sell their products at the tournament and we invited the people who were evicted from their homes to make space for the FIFA World Cup. Not only the affected communities are invited, our PPWC is open to everyone, as we don’t exclude people from participation!

During this tournament that will be held on the next 4 Sundays, 36 teams from 40 different poor communities (from Guguletu, Michells Plain, Athlone, Delft, etc.), will be representing one of the official World Cup countries. Tomorrow we will start from 10 AM at Avondale (soccer fields next to Athlone stadium) with speeches from Martin Legassick (UWC Emeritus Professor/ housing activist), Michael Premo (Housing is a Human Right) and from communities. After this we will have a soccer game for minus 9 year old’s to kick-off the start of our tournament. Then we will have another speech and we will start with the official tournament at 12:00 (until 17:00).

Besides this PPWC, we are going to have a march on the 21st of June to invite the mayor, Dan Plato as well as people from FIFA to come to our final games on the 4th of July. With this march we want to tell our government and the World that this FIFA World Cup hasn’t bring us any good and that we are further being marginalized! We as the Anti-Eviction Campaign and all the affected communities, invite all media, tourists and people who are interested to come to our tournament tomorrow.

We hope to welcome you all to our Poor Peoples World Cup!!

Kick-off: 13 June 10 AM at Avondale, next to Athlone Stadium

For more information, please contact one of the AEC coordinators: Pamela Beukes: 078 5563003, Ashraf Cassiem: 076 1861408, Mncedisi Twalo 078 5808646, Gary Hartzenberg 072 3925859, Jane Roberts 074 2384236 or Willie Heyn 073 1443619