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Durban – About 3 000 people marched through Durban on Wednesday, ahead of Spain's first World Cup match, to demand the government lavish the same spending on the poor as for the tournament.

Among them were hundreds of security guards with their FIFA badges, who clashed with riot police after the Germany-Australia match on Sunday in protest over their wages.

Their action sparked a series of walk-outs in Cape Town and Johannesburg, prompting police to take over security at those stadiums.

"Even if the police shoot us, we are going to work at Moses Mabhida Stadium," they chanted in Zulu as they marched toward City Hall.

Many protesters were frustrated at FIFA's strict marketing rules which limit all commercial activity around stadiums and fan parks.

Others accused the city of a "clean-up" to remove the homeless, street children and migrants from sidewalks to spruce up Durban's image.

Protesters included fishermen removed from their spots on the beachfront city's piers and vendors at a fresh market the city is trying to shut down to make way for a shopping mall.

Denying livelihood

"FIFA has a right to deny us our livelihood. Government took all the ratepayers' money for FIFA," said Desmond D'sa, an organiser of the march.

"If we have money for stadiums, we should not have any homeless people or people having to live in shacks," organiser Allan Murphy said in a statement ahead of the protest.

South Africa's government has poured R33bn into World Cup preparations, which critics say could have been better spent on improving lagging public services.

About 43% of South Africans live on less than two US dollars a day, and the country has the world's biggest gap between rich and poor.