Time to scrum down for parity in sport
SOUTH Africa is a sports mad nation and is doing very well at an international level – but I have discovered that there are still many unfulfilled promises from a sports perspective.
Looking at the history of sport in SA, black athletes were largely and deliberately excluded under apartheid. They were given inferior facilities, had no coaching and were deliberately overlooked by large corporations when it came to funding. Compared to their white counterparts they were thrown crumbs.
When SA returned to international sport, white sports unions made huge promises to correct these inequities. They promised the creation of facilities in impoverished areas, fasttrack coaching and funding.
They even set targets to get blacks into competitive sport in all codes including rugby, cricket and athletics. The notion was that in 20 years, sport in South Africa would be completely liberated and on equal footing.
The national sports teams would reflect society and the entire country would feel represented and get behind them.
Twenty years on and there are no South African black Africans in the starting Springbok rugby 15 (there is a Zimbabwean black), there are no blacks in the Proteas cricket test team, and whites outnumber blacks by at least five or seven to one in codes like hockey, athletics, swimming and tennis.
In golf there are about 20 South Africans in the top 300 in the world – none of them are black.
In spite of these glaring imbalances, white unions are now asking for quotas to be lifted when the results show quite clearly that they have failed to use them.
Therefore while SA has progressed hugely at an elite level in many codes, if one has to be honest, they have failed badly in delivering sport to the real poor in the last 20 years.
Based on the above, South Africans have a right to ask why the rate of black progress in South African sport has been so slow. They also have a right to question why these disparities are hardly argued publicly and holistically, as presented above. Clearly, when one looks at the problem this way, huge disparities emerge.
One argument is that humans by nature stick to their own kind and therefore by association will favour their own race. Therefore if coaches and captains are of a particular race, they will naturally favour their own kind.
But the counter argument is that this is indeed the reason that quotas were implemented in the first place – to eliminate favouritism and to open the doors to develop talented blacks. Quotas were not meant just to give any individual a chance.
Another argument is that sport is competitive and is all about selecting the best person for the job. If this is the case then it argues that the best sportspeople in the country are white.
This would seem strange when only 8% of South Africa’s population is white. Those in favour of this notion may indirectly be supporting the old Nazi and white South African belief that white people are superior. But as we all know, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Usain Bolt and a host of others continually make a mockery of this theory.
While many argue the that selectors, school and representative coaches, backed up by the media and sponsors (in other words, money and influence) are being selectively racist, there is another more complex debate, which I believe may be our ultimate weakness.
I believe the whole approach to sports development in SA is wrong – from its roots.
One of the prime reasons representative associations fail with reference to quotas is because of a lack of the ability to focus. In other words, it is nearly impossible for an association to focus on the elite side of sport and then to commit to development wholeheartedly.
While they may see development as important, they continuously have to strive to excel – which becomes their primary goal. So they relegate weaker teams, coaches and officials to “development”.
The results are that they produce weaker teams and players.
I believe that government needs to think out of the box to find a solution. I would urge them to consider creating separate associations/academies/ structures (like the Chinese did) – but specifically for the development of underprivileged sportspeople (whatever their race).
Government should step in, support and back them. Because of their significant developmental role, they can also draw in support from other countries, foreign coaches and experts.
Ultimately their role will be to feed talented players into representative structures.
Ultimately this way there will be a dual focus– equally distributed. Black administrators then can select, nurture and develop their own players with significant financial support from government, who can also lobby the private sector for sponsorship.
Government can also impose levies, for example on monoliths like SuperSport and other large corporates to outlay funds.
I know it’s a kind of reverse apartheid, but it may just be the only way to achieve parity.
One thing’s for sure, we cannot continue this way. And I believe the only way forward is to be creative – or else we will be back here in 2035 having this same debate.