Staunching loss of skills is a team effort
Everyone has a price, or so the saying goes. SA teams have now been eliminated from the European Rugby Champions (Heineken) Cup, with both the Stormers and Sharks being sent packing by Exeter and Toulouse, respectively.
Lots of reasons were proffered by the SA sides, including missing Springboks and being on the wrong side of the travel arrangements. I think it’s about money. All is not lost though, as we can still watch some of our Springboks playing in the European teams. Sigh. How uncool is that?
Money and sport have become inextricably linked. That’s not all bad; in fact it’s to be expected. We can’t blame our top sportspeople for earning the best living they can for what they excel at, given how short their active sporting economic lifespans are at the highest level.
Golf proved an exception at the Masters as the oldie, Phil Mickelson, managed to pull an Easter bunny out of the hat at the weekend. Still, money is a powerful persuader, as we can see in the LIV-PGA debate in professional golf.
It’s not just rugby but also other “national” sports, such as soccer (not to mention cricket). Many of our best players have left our shores to earn much more money than they could here. Our general economic wellbeing doesn’t seem to be on the up-and-up.
If sportspeople’s earnings are a function of their specific performance and the spectator revenue they generate, they’re quite entitled to get paid however much that may be, without limits. It’s a fair deal.
All this money has changed things, particularly for international sport. Who doesn’t get emotional when the national anthems ring out in the famous stadiums of the world? My best. I even sing if I’m at home, watching on TV.
Maybe the rules should be less flexible. As they used to ask: “Where do the English cricketers stay when they’re playing the Proteas in SA?” “At home, with their parents”, is the answer.
I’m not sure how I’ll feel when Duhan van der Merwe scores another one of his brilliant tries, against SA, for Scotland. And it’s not just in sport. Russia will now pay bonuses to soldiers who damage Ukrainian tanks.
Business is, of course, still the main money game (ignoring the mafia). Capital, including human capital, has choice, and it’ll go where it is most welcome and rewarded.
It’s not just money. People emigrate for any number of reasons. But those who can afford to, and those who are recognised as valuable resources, go first. We have developed world-class skill sets in SA, across so many fields of endeavour, from scientists to farmers, and our best are leaving — not only attracted by lucrative offshore offers but also put off by local conditions and prospects.
We could change all of this, but it will require urgent partnership initiatives (between the government and business), zero tolerance of corruption (and visible, timely, enforced consequences) and a lot of money. If we get the teams right, the money will come, locally and internationally. Ask any Premier League soccer team manager.
But we also have to eliminate our disappearing cash flows to get rid of the Financial Action Task Force greylisting — nobody wants to play on an uneven field.
We’ll also need to address certain structural business issues and introduce capital incentive schemes and an attractive tax regime, not to mention other hard issues such as personal security, health care, education ... the list is long. There are many case studies of what works, and what doesn’t, if there’s a will.
All of this is possible only with the right leadership. Let’s make SA the place to be and the country of choice, not least for our own citizens.
Our scoreboards will continue to record the sad story of failure if we don’t.