One team one country, black pain, white sport
24 June 1995 Ellis park stadium was packed to full capacity as South Africa took on new Zealand for the title of world number one rugby team. This event is one that has received a lot of credits as a unifying event in the history of South Africa, and just taking place a year after the first democratic elections it gave South Africans hope and somewhat of an illusion that we had attained rainbow nation status. Well worth mentioning is that this was the oppressor’s favourite sport, with a team consisting of only one racial group.
Any proud citizen of any country in the world would be proud if his country won a rugby world cup, the excitement of such an occurrences is the one that can’t be hidden and 20 years later I’m starting to believe the analysis regarding what the excitement around the event and its outcomes highlighted were deliberately misinterpreted for the benefit of the rainbow nation illusion. A closer look into the squad that represented South Africa (bokkies) on that day reveal no single African person was fielded or selected for to be part of the squad… So much for representing a diverse and multiracial South Africa.
It is true however that millions of black people were either watching the game live on TV or listening on radio but that doesn’t sound like an integration story to me but rather a story of being a good partisan. The selection of rugby as a symbol of integration alone highlights the desperation of the rainbow nation illusion (post apartheid reconciliation South Africa), choosing a white dominated sport meant white people won’t have to leave their comfort zone so as to integrate with black people, if sport was to be used as an integration tool or should such claims be tabled 1996 CAF would have received similar treatment from all South Africans.
I can argue that majority of the people were not even supporting the Springbok, they were supporting their country and the Springbok happened to represent them, looking at the emblem of the rugby team one will notice the Springbok and wonder what it stands for? Here is a quick explanation: The Springbok was regarded as representing both the exclusion of players who were not designated white under apartheid legislation and, by extension, of apartheid itself. Perhaps the removal of that emblem was supposed to be the first step in this process of glorifying rugby as a unifying sport,
We going to pretend rugby indeed symbolized the reconciliation of white and black South Africans, and for the purpose of what I am about to highlight pretend the squad that has represented south Africa for the past 20 years was not embroiled in some racial tug of war, when south Africa became a democratic country back in 1994 a policy of transformation was tabled so rugby will represent the best talent south Africa has got to offer but we know that is not true, we know that struggle is still going on and black talented players who are on form are overlooked for white players who are on their death beds.
Fast forward to 22 February 2016, another rugby game made it into the history books, this time however it was not a PR stunt or a desperate attempt to create a picture perfect country, reality kicked in (some people got kicked too) and the integration that we were made to believe rugby symbolized cracked open, again the stadium was full of white people and majority of white players. The events that followed after a group of protesters made their way into the stadium was just proof that integration and reconciliation could never and was never symbolized by rugby, if that was the case then why did the pain of black people be surpassed by the desire to watch the same game that symbolized our unity, so it can be “one team one country” but can never be one pain one country. It was unfortunate that we learned we were deceived in this way, with blue eyes and broken ribs, the hope of the protesters was to lure in their white country man to support their cause but they disturbed their rugby game and had to be beaten up and cleaned from the field so they can watch their “FAVOURITE SPORT” in peace.
So the world cup final match in 1995 symbolized reconciliation and the varsity cup game symbolized the success of such a reconciliation, the reconciliation that clearly stated if reconciliation is to happen then it should be the one that doesn’t upset the comfort of white people and that it should be on their terms.
Article by Dimo Wa Moraswi Sekele
