09 October 2009

The Inkatha Freedom Party has expressed its shock at the planned fee increases on domestic flight routes for next year's World Cup, which will see South Africans paying up to R5300 for a return flight between Cape Town and Johannesburg. 

"We understand that airlines want to make a profit during the 2010 World Cup, but this should not come at the expense of ordinary South Africans. At this rate South Africans are being priced out of the World Cup events, with match tickets already far too expensive for the ordinary man on the street," said Eric Lucas, the IFP's Spokesperson on Sport. 

Lucas said that it is ordinary South Africans that are making the World Cup a reality and it should therefore be affordable to all. 

"All of us - construction workers, engineers, educators, volunteers, business people, and government officials - are transforming our country and continent as we prepare to host the world in 2010. The IFP believes therefore that it is important that we see the Local Organising Committee (LOC) getting together with all the stakeholders to put into place a plan which will ensure that travelling cost and match prices are affordable to all South Africans. We cannot have a situation where we are hosting the first African World Cup but Africans and South Africans can't afford to be part of it," added Lucas.