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Letter of the President
19 October , 2007
On 14 October, two days after the publication of the last edition of ANC TODAY, the Springboks defeated the Pumas of Argentina to qualify to play England in the final match of the 2007 Rugby World Cup at the prestigious Stade de France in Paris.
Our nation salutes the Springboks on the succession of victories which has led them to the Rugby World Cup final they will play on 20 October, the first time they have reached this stage of this tournament since 1995, when they defeated the New Zealand All Blacks to bring the Webb Ellis Cup to our country.
All of us are confident that our winning Springbok team will repeat at the Stade de France in 2007 what they did at Ellis Park in 1995, and walk away as rugby world champions. We are confident that they will respond magnificently to the united national call - BRING THE CUP HOME!
We therefore wish the Springboks all success as they engage England in a peaceful contest of skill and strength the day after the publication of this edition of ANC TODAY, confident that they will win! We assure them that they have the unqualified support of our government and our united nation. I also know that the Springboks know that they will walk into the Stade de France, on 20 October, carrying the hopes and best wishes of the rugby nations of the South, who sent their best fighting squads to France to bring the Webb Ellis Cup back to the South, away from its temporary sojourn in the North.
National heroes
During the last ceremony, in September, held to admit new members into the esteemed ranks of Members of our National Orders, I was greatly privileged to discharge the solemn responsibility, according to our Constitution, to admit into these ranks two national titans of the sport of rugby, Kitch Christie, posthumously, and Morné du Plessis.
Both these national heroes stand out not only as leaders in the area of rugby, but also as determined activists in the continuing struggle to achieve national reconciliation and build a winning, non-racial and non-sexist South Africa. As the Oration delivered by the President only during the National Orders Award Ceremony directs, to them, Kitch Christie and Morné du Plessis, we say - Bayethe!
The outstanding performance of the Springboks at the 2007 Rugby World Cup tournament has, once again, drawn attention to the critical role that sport plays in strengthening national cohesion and unity, giving us our national identity, and inspiring in all of us a shared and new patriotism.
Clearly we are a long distance away from the tumultuous events beyond our shores which led our nation to admit into the esteemed ranks of the Order of the Companions of OR Tambo, the militant New Zealand activist against apartheid, Trevor Richards.
The citation read by the Chancellor of National Orders on the day of Trevor Richard's admission said he was being honoured, in Gold, for "his exceptional contribution to the struggle for the attainment of a non-racial, free and democratic South Africa through consistent advocacy of non-racial sport and the boycott of apartheid sport".
The longer text explaining the place of Trevor Richards in the making of our nation said: "Incensed by the apartheid regime's use of sporting exchanges and international sport to attempt to give what was in reality a tyrannical society a veneer of normality, Richards, together with Ton Newnham, John Minto, David Nickham and others formed the organisation called Halt All Racist Tours (HART) in 1969, initially to co-ordinate opposition to the 1970 All Black tour to South Africa.
"Over the next twenty years, HART - of which Richards was national chairperson for ten years - actively contributed to the international campaigns to stop all sports tours to and from South Africa, establishing close working relationships with the South African Non-racial Olympic Committee (SANROC), the United Nations, the Organisation of African Unity and the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa."
This speaks to the years when the Springboks were an all-white apartheid team, inevitably condemned to play their role as an instrument for the perpetuation of the apartheid system.
The road to transformation
However, in the end, the time came when an ANC delegation, which included the late Steve Tshwete, himself a rugby player for whom we continue to grieve, met the late Danie Craven and Louis Luyt in Zimbabwe in 1988, to take to the road that led to the deracialisation of rugby administration, the democratisation of our country, and the birth of the new Springboks which are now the pride of the nation.
No one among us would not have been moved by the comments the captain of the Springboks, John Smit, made after the victory over the Pumas. He said he was 17 years old when we became rugby world champion in 1995.
He said our country had made great strides in the 12 years since 1995. He observed that the racial integration of the Springboks reflected the progress our country had made towards creating a non-racial society. He further observed that he spoke for all the players in the Springbok team when he said the squad was conscious of its responsibility to the nation, and its task to contribute to the achievement of the tasks of national reconciliation, nation building and creating a non-racial society.
I have watched the Springboks as they sing our National Anthem with manifest passion, at the beginning of the matches they have played during the 2007 Rugby World Cup. I have seen them sing the entirety of our Anthem, undeterred by the fact that it uses four of our official languages.
When I listened to John Smit speaking on television after the match with the Pumas, I could see in the mind's eye the Springboks singing our National Anthem, standing in a straight line on the playing fields of the French Republic. Thus I knew that John Smit was telling the truth when he said all the Springboks of 2007 have, unlike the Springboks of 1977, become combatants for the creation of a united South African nation.
The challenge ahead
However we would be greatly mistaken if we took this immensely positive development as signifying that the rugby administrators, the players and the nation have accomplished the shared goal of building rugby as a non-racial sport at all levels, on a sustainable basis.
The depth of the challenge we all face in this regard was identified by Marja Spierenburg and Harry Wels in the publication, "Culture, Organisation and Management in South Africa: in search of equity". They wrote: "The organisation and management of rugby can perhaps be seen as a micro cosmos of South Africa's larger world of organisation and management. The parallels and the type of complexities with regard to the implementation of equity policies will emerge in the various chapters in this book as will the perpetuation of many of the inequalities in the 'new South Africa' that developed under colonialism and apartheid."
Just ahead of this they wrote: "In 1995 the South African rugby team, the Springboks, a sport typically associated with white South Africa as is the world of business and management, won the Rugby World Cup. It was celebrated as a triumph for the Rainbow Nation and the image of a cheering and dancing Mandela, celebrating the victory, is inscribed in the national memory of the country.
"In 2003, just before a next Rugby World Cup, the nation is torn apart because of alleged racism in the national rugby team. Mark Keohane, the team's communication manager, who resigned in August 2003, because 'he refused to be part of a cover-up of racism in the Bok team', wrote a report for the South African Rugby Union (Sarfu). In it he specifies his claim that racism is rife in rugby in South Africa. As South African business and management is as white as its rugby, one of Keohane's described incidences might be of particular relevance to the theme of equity in this edited volume:
"'Team selection race issues: every team selection announcement was preceded with a discussion about the number of black players in the squad and how I [Keohane] could explain this to the media. In 2002 Straeuli [the coach] had selected five black players in his match 22 and started with four on occasion. However, in 2003 the number to start never exceeded three and on two occasions only one black player started. Straeuli justified it by saying he had to pick the strongest team and that we could have no passengers in the big games'."
Normal sport
In Volume 5, No 29: 22-28 July 2005, ANC TODAY published a 'Letter from the President' entitled: "Go, Boks, go!" We cite a relatively long extract from this Letter to make the point that - a luta continues! The struggle continues! In that July 2005 Letter, just over two years ago, we said:
"The day before the publication of this edition of ANC TODAY, our media gave prominent coverage to the composition of the Springbok team selected to play the Australian Wallabies on 23 July at Ellis Park Stadium in the second match of the Mandela Challenge Plate tournament.
"In part, this heightened attention derived from the fact that the Wallabies had convincingly outplayed the Springboks in the first match in Sydney, Australia, winning by the wide margin of 30-12...
"But equally important and exciting was the unprecedented number of black players included in the Springbok side. Reporting on this development, one of our newspapers carried the front page banner headline '9 BLACK BOKS'.
"Another newspaper report said the changes made by the Springbok coach, Jake White, after the humiliating Sydney defeat, 'have resulted in a record nine black players being included in the match 22, with six black players set to start the match for the first time since South African rugby's readmission to the international fold.
"Jake White was reported as saying that the selection of a record nine black players was 'very special for me. When I took the job 18 months ago I said there were black players good enough to play for South Africa. It is about creating opportunities. To be able to pick nine black players in a Test against Australia shows we are creating these opportunities.'
"The national rugby coach insisted that he had selected a team he was convinced could and would win the match against the Wallabies. In other words, the black players he had selected were 'good enough to play for South Africa.' They had been chosen on merit, as excellent rugby athletes.
"This view was echoed by the ANC national spokesperson, member of our National Executive Committee and former rugby player, Smuts Ngonyama. He said: 'I know Jake White and he won't pick a team that he doesn't think can win. Winning is always first and foremost on his mind. It is wonderful, and I think we have a backline and pack of forwards that will beat the Australians. Now (that) we have speed and power, it should be a brilliant match.' (The Springboks managed to retain the Plate by defeating the Wallabies 33-20 at Ellis Park!)
"Jake White and Smuts Ngonyama were communicating the message to our country and people that the Springbok team selected to play the Wallabies both represented a talented and potentially successful rugby team and confirmed that we are gradually advancing towards the achievement of the goal of 'normal sport in a normal society'.
"This had been the central goal pursued by the sportspeople, such as Sam Ramsamy, who for many years worked relentlessly for the isolation of apartheid sport and the birth of a non-racial and democratic South Africa.
"That it is now possible to carry a newspaper story under the headline - 9 Black Boks - is a tribute to the sacrifices they made, to create the possibility for the black and white youth of our country to go onto the playing fields together as one team, proudly to represent one country and one people, united in their diversity.
"As we move further and further away from the apartheid years, so do some people find it difficult to understand that much of what we are about today, focused on the reconstruction and development of our country, represents the continuation of a protracted struggle under new conditions - a struggle whose fundamental objectives have not changed.
"These new conditions demand much less sacrifice from those who continue to engage the challenges facing our country as agents of change. In this situation it becomes relatively easy to debase and vulgarise the noble effort to create a new South Africa that belongs to all who live in it, black and white.
"Among other things, this makes it absolutely imperative that we should constantly recall the example set by those who fought for this new South Africa, when to do so was to invite immense suffering and pain."
From the bottom upwards, to the top
There might be many among us who might have dismissed the comments made by Springbok coach Jake White on the eve of the Ellis Park Mandela Challenge Plate match in 2005, who have also adopted the same attitude with regard to the remarks made by Springbok captain, John Smit, on the eve of the Stade de France Rugby World Cup final in 2007, concerning their commitment to the achievement of the important national objective of 'normal rugby (and sport) in a normal society'.
However, we know the distance we have travelled to arrive at the point when the Springbok coach and Springbok captain can make the remarks they made in 2005 and 2007.
Today, on the eve of the final of the 2007 Rugby World Cup, we can reel off a list of names of Rugby Union managers and Springbok players, which gives our nation a picture of the exciting promise born of the struggle that Sam Ramsamy and Trevor Richards waged, of what Steve Tshwete did when he met Danie Craven and Louis Luyt almost 20 years ago, of what Jake White and John Smit meant when they spoke as they did.
What is perfectly clear is that to build on what Jake White said in 2005, expressing his conviction that 'there are black players good enough to play for South Africa', SARU, our government, sponsors and everybody else concerned, should work together to mobilise the greatest possible numbers of young people, from the primary schools upwards, to play rugby.
Thus will we attain the goal of the 'normalisation' of the sport of rugby, when none would doubt that every player in our winning Springbok teams proudly goes into battle dressed in green and gold, because they deserve to do so as our best rugby athletes.
For now, what I know is that Bryan Habana, Percy Montgomery, Akona Ndungane, JP Pietersen, John Smit, Juan Smith and each and everyone of their Springbok team mates, have worked together as the united national team that must, on 20 October, bring the Ellis Webb Cup home. Go Bokke, go!
This page was last updated on Friday 19 October, 2007