Anger rises in South Africa over racial imbalance of sports teams

Lone figure: Kagiso Rabada is the only black African to have represented the Proteas during the Tests against England this winter
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Daniel Gallan22 January 2020

There was a time where the inclusion of a solitary black cricketer or rugby player on the field representing South Africa was celebrated as a triumph.

Chester Williams lifting the Rugby World Cup in 1995 and Makhaya Ntini opening the bowling for the Proteas pointed to a nation exorcising the demons of its past.

But change has come at a glacial pace. Government-enforced selection quotas — given the euphemism of ‘targets’ — have sought to rectify this, demanding an average of at least five ‘non-white’ players per game representing the Proteas throughout the season.

South Africa have failed to meet these requirements in any of the three Tests against England this winter.

“[Black sports fans] are getting incredibly frustrated,” said Thando Manana, a former Springbok rugby player who documented his struggle for acceptance in his 2017 book Being a Black Springbok. “We can no longer accept the racial imbalance in our national teams.”

Manana’s frustration, and that of many of his followers on social media, often manifests as anger. Public spats with dissenting journalists have become a common occurrence.

This growing animosity mirrors the rise of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). The far-left party, famous for wearing red overalls and domestic worker aprons in solidarity with the working class, won 10.8 per cent of the vote in May’s general election, an upward swing of 4.4 per cent from 2014.

Born out of the wake of the Marikana Massacre, in which 47 mine workers were shot dead by police in 2012, and driven by the firebrand leadership of Julius Malema, the EFF have refuted the Rainbow Nation ideal purported by Nelson Mandela, which so heavily leaned on sport’s cohesive powers.

“We are a generation that is refusing the emotional abuse our parents went through,” said EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi last year after Siya Kolisi had seemingly brought the country together across racial lines by winning the Rugby World Cup in Japan. “[There] is not racial unity until a rugby team rises that has a black majority, like the country we live in.”

Black Africans, as opposed to coloured or mixed-raced people such as Cheslin Kolbe or Vernon Philander, comprise more than 80 per cent of South Africa’s population. The Springboks that beat England in Yokohama were 21 per cent black. The Proteas are an even worse reflection of society, with Kagiso Rabada the only black African to have featured against England this series. “It is shameful that is where we find ourselves in 2020,” Manana said. “How can it be that the majority of our cricket team is still white? How can it be that we have just one black player? I don’t know if this new regime cares enough about transformation.”

This sentiment is shared by the Black African Cricket Clubs (BACC), a pressure group who held an emergency meeting in December to discuss the apparent whitening of the Proteas.

“I am not sure what [new director of cricket Graeme Smith] understands about a kid in Soweto [a black sub-city south of Johannesburg] or in a rural area,” said the BACC’s chairperson Ntsongo Sibiya. “If you were a black man and Smith becomes the director of cricket, would you trust him to develop your son?”

Smith was appointed to the position by the white Jacques Faul, who replaced the black Thabang Moroe as Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) chief executive.

Smith was appointed new director of cricket in December
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Mark Boucher was elected as head coach, replacing Enoch Nkwe, who was given an assistant role. Jacques Kallis was given a temporary job as batting consultant with Paul Harris included as a spin coach.

Every decision was backed by sound cricketing logic, but the optics were poor. When Temba Bavuma was dropped from the team before the start of this series, eyebrows were raised. There was no doubting his recent poor form, but Manana and others argued that it was no worse than other white batters, including captain Faf du Plessis.

A win in the First Test in Centurion allowed Boucher and Smith to settle in to their new positions, but crushing defeats in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth means the honeymoon period is now over. “Winners are able to paper over some cracks,” Manana said.

“But if the side is going to perform as it has done, what is the point of not selecting a team that represents us all?”

Rabada’s suspension for the series finale in Johannesburg, starting on Friday, means the team could be without a black African. Bavuma will likely feature, but that will require a shuffle of the pack. Nothing is ever simple in South African sport, where winning is on the field is only half the battle.