Unaffordable extravagance

THERE's a palpable sense of euphoria over the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which kicks off this week. But this euphoria fades fast when you realise that many dreams and hopes attached to the World Cup are far removed from reality  – and I'm not talking about which team you're supporting.

In a nutshell, the World Cup was supposed to generate major short-term economic benefits in the form of growth and jobs, while also creating longer-term investment opportunities. The argument is that foreigners will see what a wonderful country SA is and want to invest substantially in this country.

Much has already been written about how short-term benefits for growth from the Cup have been overstated. Cadiz, specifically, has argued that soccer spectators aren't big spenders and that the addition to retail spending from them will be miniscule. It is sceptical about the forecast that the World Cup's effect on gross domestic product growth this year will be 0.5% - a sizeable figure considering that overall growth is expected at about 3%.

The Grant Thornton analysis – if one can call it that – has to be taken with a pinch of salt. For instance, one finds this intriguing paragraph in regard with establishing how many jobs the World Cup created: "The number of annual jobs sustained in total is 695 000.

"Of these, 280 000 annual jobs will be sustained in 2010 and 174 000 by the net additional economic activity this year. This is an economic measure of equivalent annual jobs sustained by this amount of economic activity, and not new jobs created."

What on earth does this mean? Over what period have the World Cup jobs been "sustained" and how many new jobs have been created? Grant Thornton can't tell us, hoping instead that journalists will use 695 000 in their headlines.

The stark truth is that, in a country with SA's poverty, the money spent on building stadiums could have been better spent elsewhere. Just watch the news. A striking example is the open toilets next to the dirt roads in Khayelitsha.

Rainbow nation dream comes crashing down

The real meaning of the World Cup was made clear to me when Cape Town mayor Dan Plato said on e-TV news that he was removing the open toilets because he didn't want this kind of footage to be beamed across the world. The whole issue is an example of the rainbow nation dream which underpins the World Cup crashing down. Amazingly, the toilets were removed.

Plato, who is from the Democratic Alliance (DA), decided to remove them after ANC Youth League (ANCYL) members led the charge in tearing down the tin shelters erected around the open toilets in recent days. The ANCYL is demanding that concrete shelters be built.

Plato's only worry seems to be for the BBC and CNN not to film the open toilets, but the dispute might well make international news.

The point is that we are trying to portray a country that doesn't exist. The fact is that those open toilets have been in Khayelitsha for months, and that the tin shelters were a recent development – probably prompted by the looming soccer spectacular.

The ANCYL is obviously wrong in breaking the tin shelters down. But that doesn't excuse the fact that there were open toilets in the first place.

I don't know how much the Cape Town municipality spent on the World Cup. Grant Thornton says cities and provinces spent a total of R9bn. But if the city of Cape Town can afford a world class stadium, surely it can afford closed-off toilets? Which would you rather have, if you were a resident of Makhaza in Khayelitsha?

Proper sewerage vs state-of-the-art stadiums

I mention this as one example of the extreme poverty in this country that exists just kilometres away from these wonderful stadiums. In the February Budget, it was disclosed that government had spent about R33bn in preparation for the tournament. This doesn't include spending such as the Gautrain and the freeway improvement projects, which aren't directly related to the World Cup.

The DA recently leaked the government's Green Drop report on the country's sewerage infrastructure, which government had hoped to keep quiet. The findings were scary, with the report finding that 55% of municipalities' sewerage facilities were "inadequate".

Only 7% were rated as excellent. Even worse, the actual level of non-compliance is likely to be higher, as only 53% of the country's 852 treatment plants were assessed in the Green Drop report. Many simply didn't reply. The backlog in sewerage infrastructure is R23bn – which could have been covered by the money spent on building beautiful stadiums.

You may wonder why I'm spending so much time talking about toilets. The point is, SA hasn't even got the basics right and yet thinks it's great to spend massive amounts of money on a soccer spectacular. There's also the R75bn backlog in roads and R27bn backlog in electricity distribution infrastructure.

One point that should spoil the euphoria about the World Cup is the fact that foreign journalists aren't stupid – they'll find the poverty and portray it to the world. No matter that beggars have apparently been removed from Durban's streets (and put where, I wonder?). The British Financial Times this week ran a story based on Durban with the headline: Poor cry foul over World Cup in Durban.

The SA that Cup supporters want to portray exists only in dreams and television commercials. Booking our place in history indeed – but not in the way that you think.

- Fin24.com