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‘Stayin alive in Jo’burg’ is an interesting and entertaining documentary about the social effects of the preparations for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in the downtown areas of the city of Johannesburg.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is due to take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010 in South Africa, this will be the first time that the tournament has been hosted by an African nation.

The World Cup matches will be held at several South African cities including Johannesburg which will play a key role hosting the opening ceremony, will also serve as a venue for some of the preliminary rounds and for one of the quarter-final matches and as the venue for the final.

The city’s executive mayor, Amos Masondo, believes that the 2010 World Cup has given Johannesburg the impetus to create an infrastructure whose legacy will outlive the actual event.

The vital preparations include ensuring that match venues are upgraded and ready; the transport infrastructure can cope with the volume of people expected in the city; that communications for the international media are state-of-the art; and that the city itself can deal with the influx of visitors, overseeing all of this is the city’s 2010 unit, headed by executive director Sibongile Mazibuko.

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Johannesburg is the largest economic metropolis in Africa. But much of Downtown Johannesburg, however, is an area of urban decay, it is a violent places where buildings have been abandoned by their owners many are now squatted by migrants from the countryside and from the wider African continent who are trying to build a new life.

Meanwhile, the city is preparing for the World Cup soccer 2010, an important opportunity for Johannesburg to present itself to the world. The city centre needs to be cleaned up, and everything is being done to make sure that this major event will run smoothly.

But what will be the consequences for the thousands of immigrants in the city center?

The Director of the film ‘Stayin alive in Jo’burg’ Rob Schröder visited Johannesburg during 2008 to document the changes that were taking place in the city.

The image of people living without electricity or running water in the shadow of gleaming new stadiums is not something that the South African Government wants the world to see and therefore it has been accused of evicting thousands of people from their homes to make way for new developments which will only benefit the World Cup tourists.

S’bu Zikode, president of Abahlali baseMjondolo, the South African shack dwellers’ movement, said: “We are supposed to be happy and excited to be hosting this major event but evictions are already taking place on a large scale. The government is focusing on the international visitors rather than poor communities. The role of the poor is seemingly to work hard in hotels, soccer stadiums and other facilities for the world’s benefit, but then be kicked out of the cities and not share in the profits.”

Coincidentally this week I sent an open letter to South African President Jacob Zuma asking him to intervene in events in Durban following an appeal by the Friends of the Kennedy Road Development Committee and Abahlali baseMjondolo In one of the poorest shack settlements in Durban, South Africa, armed thugs have been reported to have killed settlement residents and destroyed their home in a coordinated and racially motivated attack. Local police appear to be entirely complicit in these attacks, as do local members of the African National Congress.

The letter asks President Jacob Zuma to intervene directly, and to remind him and those involved in this violence that the world watches their actions.

Last month homeless people threw stones as police fired rubber bullets in Macassar Village in Cape Town. The demolitions are particularly sensitive because of echoes of the relocation policy of the apartheid government.

War on Want, the British-based anti-poverty charity, argues the government will deepen poverty while hiding it from international fans and media.

Wendy Willems, its programmes research officer, said: “The South African government sees slums as an image problem. In reality this is a human problem for the thousands of people who will lose their homes.

“The government must stop these World Cup evictions and instead tackle the problem of insecure housing fairly and improve living conditions for poor South Africans.”

The documentary ‘Stayin Alive in Joburg’ follows Social Geographer Ismailfarouk and Zack Sejephala a resident from Bertrams district area of Johannesburg looking at the issues of migration, police enforcement, urban redevelopment and the upcoming 2010 world cup.

Blogger Ismail Farouk said of the film, please remember this is a just a slice from the streets Joburg and the movie does focus on the problems only. Keep in the back of you mind that there is much good work happening too. Joburg is not all about crime and fear. As it happens, I live in Cape Town now, and I believe that petty crime is far worse here. Joburg gets a bad rap, and its just unwarranted.

The music for the main theme soundtrack Stayin Alive, was performed by The African Noise Foundation, all other music was recorded live in the streets.

What is worrying is news that the South African government is not only forcibly evicting people from their homes and planning demolition in areas of Bertrams but also proposes compulsory relocation for thousands within the inner cities to further sanitise areas in and around the stadium.

Farouk’s more recent work has taken him into the suburb of Bertrams. The suburb, the oldest in Johannesburg, has been ear marked for regeneration because of its proximity to the Ellis Park Stadium now renamed Coca Cola Stadium where many homes which were abandoned by their white owners are now in a poor condition.

The documentary film ‘Stayin Alive in Joburg’ has been produced in the Netherlands as a part of the cross media program which is jointly organized by VPRO (originally an acronym for Vrijzinnig Protestantse Radio Omroep, or “Liberal Protestant Radio Broadcasting Company”) and IABR, the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam which is an international event of exhibitions, conferences, lectures and other activities devoted to themes in the field of architecture and urbanism.

The documentary films ‘Stayin alive in Joburg’ and other VPRO / IABR Urban Century documentaries are licensed under creative commons and are available here as free downloads.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 12:55 am and is filed under What is going on?, film review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.