A pre-evaluation of residents’ perceptions of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ : a case study of an informal settlement in Cape Town, Western Cape

Abstract

South Africa won the right to host the first Fédération Internationale de Football (FIFA) WorldCup™ on the African continent in 2010. The 2010 FIFA World Cup™ has been heralded as a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity with significant legacy benefits for South Africans. Many sport mega-event organisations tend to disregard residents’ perceptions of the events’ social, economic and environmental impacts. There is a lack of research investigating responses of residents where the event takes place, specifically studies on informal residents’ perceptions of sport mega-events. The main focus of this study is to explore the level of awareness, perceptions and attitudes of residents living in an informal settlement area in close proximity to Cape Town Stadium with respect to the impacts of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in Cape Town. A systematic, stratified random sampling technique was used to survey 370 household residents of Joe Slovo, which is the nearest informal settlement to Cape Town Stadium, three months before the hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. The findings revealed that the majority of the residents were aware of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, and that communication from stakeholders could have improved. The residents also expressed their support for the event by indicating various levels of participation. They also generally had positive perceptions towards the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, but highlighted that big businesses and the wealthy and rich would mainly benefit from the event. Social concerns were related to traffic congestion, excessive noise levels, and crime. An investigation of this sort ‘paves the way’ for on-going research into residents’ perceptions of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. It is recommended that the focus should be on longitudinal impacts rather than short-term impacts and that a legacy should be left behind