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Real people doing unreal things
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Yvonne Fontyn
Financial Mail
Friday, June 11, 2010
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From the publications put out by various Gauteng tourism organisations, one would think all that Johannesburg had to offer soccer fans here for the World Cup were shopping for fur and gold, eating in pricey restaurants and staying in Sandton hotels.
Ethel Williams- Abrahamse
Fan village entrepreneur
The Unreality Check
* Established the Troyeville & Kensington Fan Village to provide an authentic experience for tourists
* Signed up local artists to participate in the parties and cultural events during the soccer World Cup
* Aims to involve and uplift the community
Undeterred by authorities’ stonewalling
Ethel Williams-Abrahamse lives on the doorstep of Ellis Park, one of the soccer World Cup stadiums, and wanted to provide a more authentic experience of her hometown. She also had a hunch that most soccer tourists were neither loaded, nor high brow, nor too interested in struggle history.
“They will spend an hour visiting the Hector Pieterson memorial in Soweto, but really I think that most want to watch the games, meet the locals and party,” says Williams-Abrahamse.
See other soccer-related stories in FM this week:
* Fan parks
* Eddie Firmani - sixty years of soccer
* Ethel Williams-Abrahamse “Fanvillage Troyeville” for accommodation near the Ellis Park stadium.
Communicating with soccer fan clubs all over the world on her Facebook site “Fanvillage Troyeville” also confirmed the visitors would be looking for modest accommodation in the B&Bs and backpackers’ lodges near the stadium.
Williams-Abrahamse and her husband Guy Oliver, a journalist working for the UN, own the Red Line, a 1902 Edwardian house in Troyeville, and the adjacent art deco Gem Bioscope, built in 1941. Eighteen months ago she began work on plans for a village-like precinct in the historic suburb, once the trendy home of many artists and media people but now a decaying “red line” area.
Williams-Abrahamse wanted to engage the whole community, laying on craft markets, a visitors’ centre, live music and opportunities for people to open their homes and provide food and essential services. Also on the agenda would be tours of Troyeville and Kensington, which contain some of Johannesburg’s rich but neglected heritage: the houses where Mahatma Gandhi and anti- apartheid activist David Webster lived, and a rich diversity of architecture.
Establishing the Troyeville & Kensington Fan Village a year ago, Williams-Abrahamse approached the many powers that be at city council, Joburg Tourism and the Fifa Local Organising Committee for the necessary permits and infrastructure upgrading.
After much negotiation and having her hopes raised and dashed (at one point she was told that all of the disposable budget had gone to the Miss World pageant), by April this year nothing had been finalised. It was clear then that promised infrastructure upgrading to Troyeville and nearby Bertrams, Bez Valley and Judith’s Paarl would not happen. Only in a small radius around Ellis Park has the area been cleaned up, the roads fixed and a bus station built. Four blocks away, severe urban decay is evident. “We did receive some signage, and there is a weekly road sweeper,” Williams-Abrahamse concedes.
Undeterred by the poor response , she has persevered, signing up local artists, performers and crafters to participate in the parties and cultural events planned . The Red Line has become a hospitality centre which, apart from offering refreshments and tourist information, houses two art exhibitions — one by students and the other a vibrant collection titled Soccer and Development by visiting Chilean artist Mario Jiménez Álvarez .
The Gem Bioscope has been pushed into service as “The Market Place”, an indoor market where handcrafted soccer memorabilia and other gifts are sold. There will also be caricaturists doing portraits, as well as buskers and food vendors. All the activities will be held indoors, in accordance with Fifa requirements, and all products on sale comply with the Fifa trademark restrictions.
“I hope the Troyeville & Kensington Fan Village will offer visitors an opportunity to experience the soul and spirit of a diverse and authentic Johannesburg urban village,” says Williams-Abrahamse.
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