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South Africa's debate: What good are the Games?
August 25, 1997
Web posted at: 2:13 p.m. EDT (1813 GMT)CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNN) -- As Cape Town waits to learn if it has been chosen to host the 2004 Olympics, its residents debate the value of such an honor.
Winning the Summer Games would help erase the legacy of white minority rule by narrowing the gap between rich and poor, says Chris Ball, who heads Cape Town's Olympic Organizing Committee.
"Cape Town is a classic apartheid city," he told CNN. "There is a historic distortion not only in terms of residence but also in terms of the distribution and location of recreational facilities."
But while Ball sees the promise of athletics bringing economic development, other Cape Towners argue that such development is needed right away and should not rely on bidding for the Olympics.
'The sport here' is survival
Ivan Williams, leader of a group called "Stop 2004 Olympic Bid," calls sporting events largely meaningless to South Africans struggling to survive.
"The sport of the community living in this area is getting up at four in the morning, going to the boiler rooms of the South African economy and returning at eight at night ... That's the sport that they enjoy," he said.
Although vocal, Cape Town's anti-Olympics movement is limited. Community leaders such as Sam Dube believe the majority of the city's people will only benefit should the city's bid succeed.
"There are going to be houses and the railway line is going to be diverted in order to accommodate the housing development that is going to take place in this area," he says.
President Nelson Mandela, who also supports Cape Town's bid, has pointed out that while the five Olympic rings symbolize the world's five continents, the Games have never been held in Africa.
The International Olympic Committee votes on a site for the 2004 Summer Games on September 5. The other candidate cities are Rome; Athens, Greece; Stockholm, Sweden; and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Whether successful or not, Cape Town's status as a finalist city has already led to changes.
A group of young girls who will turn 16 in 2004 are already in training in a dilapidated building in hopes of being on the South African Olympic gymnastic team The 16 girls were chosen from 10,000 applicants in disadvantaged areas.
They now await to what amounts to a decision on their future. If the Cape Town bid fails, it's unlikely there will be sufficient money for their training program to continue, says Piet Swart, their coach.
Johannesburg Bureau Chief Mike Hanna contributed to this report.
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