Downstairs at Libby’s restaurant, football fever is alive and well. People of all shapes and ages and sizes are streaming in to watch the Brazil-Zimbabwe World Cup warm up match being played in Harare as we speak.

But unfortunately, the facts behind the match provide a demoralising reminder of the business side of the sport. As The Telegraph reports:

Cash-strapped Zimbabwe, which struggles to pay its teachers and doctors, had to fork out 1.8 million dollars to the Brazilians to get them to play in Harare, financed in part by corporate donations.

We sent out the following text message to our subscribers asking what they thought of this.

Kubatana! Fly the Zimbabwe flag today. Go Warriors! While civil servants get peanut salaries Zim pays US$1.8 mil to get Samba boys to play here. Wot do u think?

Many were less than impressed. The first messages we’ve received are below:

As one of the civil servants, that’s inhuman we are really suffering togther with our kids strikes have proved fruitless

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Desperate theives

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Good it  reliefs stress at times.
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I think vanofanira kupa mari ma civil servants inotenga
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I wonder what exactly the country is set to benefit from playing Brazil when we wont be at the WC. Maybe someone else knows?

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I ws deadly embarassed too by dat

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If i say they are mentally disturbed it’s mockering them.Ngatiti ndibaba vanosiya mumba musina hupfu vachindosasana

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Its inhuman

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It’s not fair. Wait til elections are here. It’s time for change.
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ITS TERRIBLE
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Nonsense.they.don’t.think
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Not fair. What do we gain frm that game. Chasing history wl civil servants wallow in poverty.
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That’s crazy!

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The authorities are cruel and shameful. It was even more demeaning that they chose to give the servant time to watch da game yet they don’t have to spare

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The move is worth the money!
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They must strike and pasi nehurumende yeuori

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Unrelistic & Outrageous

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Wasteful gvt

This entry was posted on June 2nd, 2010 at 3:58 pm by Amanda Atwood and is filed under Governance, Inspiration, Media, Reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.