South Africa: Community fears World Cup will cause homelessness

While South African parliamentarians attended a swanky pre-International Women's Day celebration at Cape Town's International Convention Center, a group of destitute women in decaying Kewtown, just seven miles away, worried about looming homelessness. The women were notified by the municipality that their homes will be bulldozed to make way for an extended parking lot for Cape Town's Athlone Training Stadium, while others were asked to vacate their flats for renovations. But residents fear their flats, situated in a prime location for the Soccer World Cup in June, will be rented out to soccer fans. At parliament's official International Women's Day conference on Mar. 5, themed '2010 FIFA World Cup Legacy for Women', South Africa's minister of Home Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, told the assembled Members of Parliament, cabinet ministers and representatives of local non-governmental organizations that several projects had been established to benefit women long after the World Cup has ended. "There is a project of reducing carbon emissions. FIFA has called for people to be involved. Women should seize that opportunity. The country will be spending a lot on infrastructure. Women must also look at how to use those possibilities to increase their economic opportunities," suggested Dlamini-Zuma.