We owe the Boks for their victory

It was one of the most poignant moments of the Springbok Rugby World Cup campaign: tough guy Duane Vermeulen with tears running down his cheeks shortly after Bok team staff member Matt Proudfoot whispered something in his ear. Proudfoot’s words to the Bok Number 8 were: “It’s for him…”

Vermeulen’s dad – who passed away when he was just eight – wasn’t there to see his ultimate sporting triumph. So those tears spoke of a life of struggle and determination of a young man brought up by a single mom.

But it also echoed the stories of many others in the team, Vermeulen has said, because some had lost fathers and others had to overcome the tough hands life dealt them.

This entire Springbok team, being feted across Gauteng yesterday and the rest of the country from today, should not be viewed as supermen, because they are just ordinary people doing extraordinary things. The fact that they are able to do these things is because they believe – in what they are doing and in each other.

As we watch them taking their triumphal tour around the country, let’s celebrate them by all means – and nobody really knows how to do that like we do in this country – but let’s think about how they did it.

It was through hard work, discipline and teamwork – where the sum of the whole is so much greater than the sum of the parts – that they turned their natural talents into something world-beating.

Take away our tendency to nastiness and anger and think about the talent that we as people, as a nation, have collectively. It goes to waste.

None but ourselves can achieve that transformation of society where racism, inequality and corruption wither and disappear. The Boks brought us joy. We owe them some hard work in return.