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The Congress of South African Trade Unions is absolutely shocked and outraged at a report in the UK newspaper, News of the World (NoW), that light-up models of the South African World Cup mascot - the dreadlocked leopard Zakumi - is being manufactured in China by workers who are being paid just R23 a day!

The newspaper reports that, "Shivering with cold, eyes straining in the gloom, young workers in a squalid Shanghai factory slave late into the night making light-up models of the World Cup mascot. Soon you will be able to buy the official trinket - for R360. But spare a thought for the poor souls in China who must work two weeks to earn enough to buy one.

"The workers, many of them just teenagers, toil for a pitiful R23 a day making the Zakumi figures. Posing as potential buyers from the UK, our (NoW) investigators discovered the awful conditions at the Shanghai Fashion Plastic Products factory, 30 miles from the city centre."

But if the reports are true this is not a case of yet more illegal counterfeit good being produced. They are the official FIFA product!

The firm's Chief Executive Officer, David Lau, told the NoW that "South African tournament organisers and FIFA, football's governing body, gave them permission to make 2.3 million of the trinkets after visiting the miserable factory four times. There were about a dozen of them who came each time and they spent a long time inspecting our factory and our production lines," he said.

"They awarded his company the contract even though, like our (NoW) team, they must have seen workers moulding and painting the figures, shivering in coats and scarves at their dimly-lit workstations till up to 11pm. They could also have seen the factory waste draining into a canal at the back, turning the water a putrid black. The squalid scene is a far cry from the computerised images of a clean, modern factory set in landscaped gardens on the company's website, which carries FIFA's logo.

Employees at the securely-guarded complex receive a basic monthly wage of just 800 yuan (R865). They have money deducted for bed and board in grim four-bed dormitories, giving them a take-home wage of just R23 a day. Former worker Yuli Qing, 22, told the NoW: "It is one of the worst factories around here in terms of pay and the bosses are horrible. They're very strict."

A 23-year-old female worker said: "I work really hard and spend 13 hours a day in the factory, but I only make 1,000 yuan (R1080) a month". Workers are often unable to cope with the tough conditions, including freezing winter temperatures and swelteringly hot summers, and quit, leaving a shortfall of labour.

The article continues: "In a boardroom overlooking the bleak factory complex, Lau showed off the completed Zakumis and boasted to the NoW of the profit he could make. ‘I'm not interested in the World Cup. I'm not a big football fan, but I am a big fan of money'. He claimed FIFA insisted the firm pay it 17% of the wholesale cost of the figures upfront. ‘We had to pay millions of US dollars but we are a big, powerful company and that is not a problem if it will make us a lot of money'."

He said that his workers had just finished an order of 30,000 for South Africa. "We've got an order for 300,000 to Switzerland and the South Africans want another 70, 000," he said. "Everyone in England is crazy about football".

Asked to comment on the workers' pay and conditions, Lau said: "It is not convenient for me to discuss our workers' pay. Goodbye." There is no national minimum wage in China. Those paid at the factory comply with guidelines for the region.

The newspaper quoted FIFA as saying: "We will investigate the nature of the allegations and take the necessary measures if needed."

That is not good enough. This story illustrates the terrible extent to which the World Cup and soccer generally has been hijacked by big business. FIFA's deals with sponsoring companies giving them the exclusive rights to sell their products, the high prices of tickets and the cost of World Cup clothing and memorabilia are turning the people's game into a gigantic profit-generating scam. Workers and the poor are being priced out of the market and sidelined from their beloved game.

COSATU has consistently demanded that all World Cup paraphernalia must be manufactured in South Africa so that we can create jobs and inherit a legacy from the tournament which will permanently improve the lives of South African workers. We are utterly appalled that even Zakumi, the official mascot, is being made, under such appalling conditions, in China.

We are outraged that huge profits will be made by exploiting the low-paid Chinese workers. South African workers are missing a chance to get new work. South African consumers, thinking they are making a patriotic gesture by buying the over-priced mascot, are unaware of where it comes from and how it is produced.

Our affiliate SACTWU is angry that the cheaper version of the Bafana Bafana jersey is also not being manufactured in South Africa.

The federation demands that FIFA and its Local Organising Committee carry out a thorough investigation into the facts revealed by the NoW's expose, and, if they are true, identify those responsible and reverse its decision to award this contract to the Chinese company, and other similar deals, and reallocate them to Proudly South African companies. Soccer must be returned to its rightful owner - the people of the world!