/ 25 August 2006

Hope in homeless feet

Bafowethu — Our Brothers — are taking a breather halfway through a photo shoot in a grungy-chic Cape Town studio, and seeing them sprawled, stylishly slothful, across a couple of couches in their uniform tracksuits, it’s easy to assume that one has stumbled across a Santos or Ajax development squad.

They slouch like pro footballers, talk like pro footballers, josh each other like pro footballers. But look a little closer and one notices one thing that’s missing: wrinkles.

The South African team that will take to the Grand Parade in Cape Town in less than a month in the Homeless World Cup is startlingly young. I wasn’t expecting this: in the mind of the middle-class suburbanite, homeless people are either nine-year-old urchins or 40-year-old down-and-outers. These bright-eyed young men with their funky haircuts and sharp gear don’t fit the clichÃ