The last hurrah of the Springbok

Marcell Coetzee of the Springboks. Photo / Getty

Opinion

People often quote Nelson Mandela when speaking about the miraculous 'peaceful' transition to democracy in South Africa.

The image of Mandela and Springboks captain Francois Pienaar following the Springboks 1995 World Cup win over arch-rivals New Zealand, has been immortalised in typical Hollywood fashion in the 2009 film Invictus.

The film sidesteps very serious issues, which the majority of rugby playing nations, New Zealand included, would consider to be abominable. The story of the 1995 Rugby World Cup does not tell the horrific tale of the 26,877 people who were murdered in South Africa that year (InterPol data).

Mandela's moment of sporting inspiration in wearing that green jersey on that magnificent day in June 1995 has caused people to overlook the fact that his term as president between 1994 and 1999 saw 124,564 people die of "unnatural causes" (InterPol data).

The euphoria of 20 years ago has been smashed by the continued intransigence of those who control rugby in South Africa. The farcical unity talks sought not to unify South African rugby structures, but rather to maintain and strengthen 'white' hegemony and control. All apartheid structures in rugby were retained, instead of the structures that opposed apartheid.

Despite the deepening socio-political and economic crisis in the country, the announcement of the 2015 Springbok World Cup squad has resulted in an outcry from almost all sectors of society.

Transformation, they say, has failed. Are we concerned mainly about transformation in a sport, which for over 100 years carried the flag of racial 'supremacy' in this country? The South African public has imbibed the perpetuation of the story of Springbok rugby supremacy, and local and international media have shown scant interest in giving perspective to the historical inaccuracies prevalent in popular sporting discussions.

The current transformation model is an aberration of justice. We celebrate the 'transformation' not of the system, but of individuals, as they, and not the exclusive system into which they are allowed, become transformed. It is an indictment on the logic of South Africans that they accept illiterate and unqualified CEOs and leaders, but cannot accept an un-transformed 'black' into the Springbok rugby system.

It is lunacy to expect a system designed under apartheid to be suitable for the purposes of 'Nation Building' and unity, in a country built on the fault lines of apartheid. We should also remember that in a 1998 interview with John Pilger, Mandela said: "You must remember that the best way to introduce transformation is to do so without dislocating any aspect of our public life".

The Springboks therefore represent the continuity of exclusion and conditional integration. Only the terminally deluded could possibly believe it to be a patriotic act to support such a system through jersey wearing, flag waving, zealotry. It is time to cull the Springbok and all the systems that underpin it.

It is time to build the New South Africa.

Mark Fredericks is a video technician at the University in East London (Walter Sisulu University) in East Cape. He describes himself as a "sports activist" working on an MA proposal titled 'Waving the Flag - Exploring Sporting Discourses in Post-Apartheid South Africa'. Fredericks visited New Zealand in 2011 and spoke at functions to mark 30 years since the 1981 Springbok tour.