At some level, you want Euro-American media to stop with the South African previews before the World Cup. The latest is the Dutch TV documentary film, “Staying Alive in Joburg.” From the PR when the film premiered at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam in 2009: “… Johannesburg is the largest economic metropolis in Africa. However, this city is one of the world’s most violent places. Most office buildings have been vacated or squatted and are occupied by several groups of illegal Africans. Thousands of fortune seekers are trying to build a new life in this anarchist urban jungle. Meanwhile, the city is preparing for the World Cup 2010, the opportunity for Johannesburg to present itself to the world from its best side. The city centre needs to be cleared to make sure that this major event will run smoothly. But will it succeed?”

The PR is overblown. The film is limited in its focus. And that is both its strength and weakness: it primarily consists of a walk through inner city Johannesburg ahead of the 2010 World Cup narrated by a local housing activist, meeting and talking to locals about their challenges (rent, crime, heartless owners, no investment, etcetera).  It would have helped some viewers, not familiar with Johannesburg to show life in the city’s richer, and whiter, northern suburbs where the “fan fests” will be and where the malls, hotels, hostels and bed and breakfast accommodations are.  Ellis Park, one of the venues for the World Cup is on the edges of the inner city.  And the final will be played at the new Soccer City stadium in Soweto, So, unless they try or show initiative, few fans, when doing some tourism, will visit the areas featured the film.

Contrasting where the average visiting fan would actually visit, would have further exposed the city’s official neglect. This is not a natural process, but a deliberate strategy and policy by the local state and private interests to gut the inner city and them blame political change (in this integration).

Nevertheless, the film is definitely a must see and a thousand times better than the hysterical nonsense published on the World Cup in the British media, whether R W Johnson’s rants about witchcraft in the London Review of Books (the magazine should know better), journalists confusing Cabinda in Angola with South Africa (when the Togolese team got shot there during the African Cup of Nations), the nonsense reported about South Africa on Britain’s Channel 4 or football writer Louise Taylor’s fictions on the The Guardian’s website.

After you watch part one, parts two, three, four, five and six are also archived on Youtube.