Gary Boshoff
Bok coach a politician?
2009-04-14 07:24
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Gary Boshoff
Politics is a dirty game; that we all know. Mix it with sport and it can become even dirtier – we in South Africa have a particular history to show for it.
There was a time in the history of South African sport, specifically within the black community, when communities and families were divided based on the sport movement they supported. The particular sport movement you were affiliated to reflected a specific political point of view and as such many of these sport activists were persecuted by the South African security police during the years of Apartheid oppression. So in the context of South African reality, sport and politics were always considered to be part and parcel of the same social reality and that it was impossible to separate the two.
Fifteen years on this hasn’t changed much as sport still remains a contested terrain between leaders and sports people holding their own distinctive political points of view – this is so throughout the world and will never change. Rugby in particular has been the best example of how politics and sport interact in an oppressed society and post 1994 in a society in transition. While we would have liked to have seen the sport transformed at a rapid pace this is never the case because it takes time to break down the networks and power relations that were established over centuries. Rugby is still seen by many as an exclusive club controlled by the conservative right wing unions, to the exclusion of direct input from the African majority. Mike Stofile said as much when he made his exit from Saru a year ago.
While the transition from apartheid sport to an open representative sport body has been far from revolutionary, progress has been gradual. Last year rugby, though reluctantly so, appointed its first black coach in Peter de Villiers, a self-made “coloured man” from the Boland. I deliberately refer to this man’s particular heritage because it becomes more relevant further into this column. What made De Villiers’ achievement so meaningful was that he got there on his own steam, without having to kowtow before those that hold sway over the course of things in rugby. He paid his own way to Wales years back to get an international qualification as a coach and then returned to South Africa, working his way up from club level to national level – a self-made man indeed. De Villiers therefore epitomises to me, and I’m sure to most South Africans, what can be accomplished if you put your mind on something and muster all your energy towards it.
In the still divided rugby community of South Africa, De Villiers certainly carries the hopes of those that have tirelessly campaigned for the recognition of black rugby and the vast rugby knowledge and opportunity that lies hidden in these communities. In his playing days he was a member of the non-racial Boland provincial team and played his club rugby in Paarl – just by stating this fact one immediately locates him within the fold of the oppositional forces against the apartheid state at the time because the establishment of Saru (pre-unity) and its affiliated non-racial unions and clubs were in protest against the oppressive political regime that were governing South Africa at the time.
Notwithstanding this, progressive societal change has resulted in a different reality from which we grew up in and which demands different responses from us, both as citizens and as activists. When De Villiers was appointed as coach of the national team he no longer only represented the formerly disenfranchised or the former oppressed black rugby community, he was expected to transcend that role and represent all South Africans, every single rugby supporter and player, also the ones that have campaigned so strongly to deny him the appointment. That was the responsibility bestowed upon him.
Personally I believe he did a great job to put all South Africans at ease that he is not a radical politically driven rugby coach but that he has the interests of the game at heart. He has demonstrated that rugby is not about “white” or ‘black” but rather about opportunity, skill and wit. He has indeed been the trigger to fundamentally change the image of Rugby from being perceived as (or projected as) a white sport to a sport for all.
This brings me to De Villiers’ recent decision to pronounce his support for the ruling party in the upcoming elections. This to my mind puts a completely different slant on the sport and politics debate in that given the racial nature of politics in South Africa, though not intentionally so, De Villiers’ pronouncement might have more wide ranging repercussions (for him and for rugby) than what he anticipated with this move. There are two schools of thought on this, namely that each individual has the right to openly support any political party he/she chooses to support as part of an open society like South Africa and in the case of national public apolitical organisations (like Saru), it is best that the leaders/representatives of these organisations keep their political affiliations personal and out of the public domain for obvious reasons.
With the changing nature of politics in the country and the particular challenge political parties face in the Western Cape, where the coloured vote is once again going to be decisive in determining the winner, De Villiers is certainly a prize catch for any political party. Rugby is part of the culture of the coloured communities in the Western Cape and to have De Villiers (the Springbok Coach) on your side is certainly a plus. From an election campaign perspective the ruling party had best use the opportunity presented to them.
De Villiers, as coach of the Springboks, a team that represents all South Africans (read all political parties) and a supposedly apolitical organisation (Saru), has chosen to publicly pronounce his support for one of these parties. It is certainly his right to do so, however, whether it was wise to do so and how it will impact on his relationships with his players, management team and superiors at Saru, only time will tell.
Gary Boshoff is a former Saru player and well-known rugby administrator.
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