THISDAYonline

The segregation of South Africa's apartheid past has reappeared in Cape Town where municipal officials are preventing football from being played in an expensive white residential area.

Cape Town City Council is requiring that a special permit be obtained before any football matches are allowed at the Newlands rugby and cricket stadiums which lie adjacent to each other and are the biggest sporting venues in the city.

This has led to the South African Football Association withdrawing its plan to host a World Cup qualifier in Cape Town.

South Africa's crucial qualifier against Zimbabwe was due to be held at Newlands rugby stadium on May 5 but SAFA said it would now be played at Johannesburg's Soccer City venue because of the racist attitude of Cape Town's municipality.

The council in Cape Town is controlled by the opposition Democratic Alliance, who recently refused to allow Premier League club Santos to play its matches at the cricket venue. Under pressure from the local ratepayers' association, who fear the influx of majority black crowds into the leafy suburb, the council has invoked an old apartheid-era ordinance that requires a special permit for soccer matches to be staged at the two venues.

South Africa have won all three games so far, including this success over Burkina Faso

Ironically, another Premier League club Ajax Cape Town have been playing at Newlands rugby stadium all season but now have to apply for the same permit.

SAFA decided to move the World Cup match at their meeting in Port Elizabeth over the weekend.