The Pain Of A Nation

I’m sad this morning. It’s a deep, dull sadness that has been lingering and growing for some time. I’m sad because for the first time ever I woke up this morning, sat up in bed, and seriously considered leaving South Africa to start a life in another country, like so many of my friends and family have.

No, I cannot tell a horrific story of a run in with crime – thank God. My wider family community somehow remains protected from the impact of crime, although I must admit there’s a dark shadow of inevitability that hangs over my head.

I’m responding to the emerging political crisis around SA Rugby and the escalating public-sector strike action which has had a significant impact on my family (many of them are teachers, and a few nephews obviously go to school) and is rumoured to be linked to violent action in Boksburg, where a power station is burning, leaving half my buddies without electricity for a week. In the dead of winter, mind you.

Now let me make myself clear in the sense that I support the motives behind the strike. Civil servants get paid peanuts in South Africa while our beloved politicians lavish in luxury. It needs to happen. But not violently. We need to draw the line between mass action and mob action.

On to rugby. Look, so much has been said about rugby and politics and SARU and transformation that it’s unlikely I can add anything meaningful to the debate. But I need to vent. I close to tears every time I think about rugby. Honestly.

Here’s the situation as I understand it. South African rugby is on the up – both in terms of results and transformation. Transformation has been slow, yes, but we’re talking about 13 years. If a 6 year old black child entered the schooling system (or formal rugby system) 13 years ago, went through the entire process successfully, emerged now at 19, able to compete at the highest level, there should be absolutely nothing stopping him from getting into the national side. And I don’t think there is. But how can we criticise the process if we’re only beginning to see the fruits of it now!?

So now we sit with a national rugby side that can perform at the highest level with 3-5 black players in the side on pure merit. I believe we can safely assume, leaving the current system alone, that by 2010 that number will have increased to 7-10 by sheer weight of numbers. Black people outnumber white people in South Africa by a significant margin, are fantastic athletes and will naturally find rugby to be a less and less white / Afrikaans dominated sport, BY NATURAL PROCESS. I would be utterly thrilled to see our national side comprised of 10 or 12 brilliant, world-class black players by 2010 – awesome! What a way to bring our country together!

Rugby has a way of doing that – bringing us together – regardless of colour or creed. We saw that in 1995 with a white-dominated winning world cup side that was adopted by a NATION – not just fellow whites. I don’t hear SA’s black citizens crying out against the state of rugby – black (or indian or coloured) South Africans enjoy a winning team as much as whites do – just as much as I enjoy watching our very black football side beat the ass off African competition. I’m thrilled when we hammer Chad 4-0.

The government is exerting enormous pressure on SARU, who has to respond with a strong hand, because the VERY NATURE OF RUGBY is that it is a POWERFUL UNITING FORCE in this country (not to mention commercial engine). But the power of rugby lies not in the administrators or even players, whether they’re there on merit or not. The power of rugby in South Africa lies in the hands of you and I – the fans. The people who pay a fortune to attend games to watch our beloved Springboks, buy merchandise and switch on the telly to satisfy advertisers and sponsors.

If government continues to fire capable coaches, chase talented players abroad and ignore the voice of the supporters who so dearly love this sport (black and white), SA rugby will deteriorate just as Zimbabwean cricket has. Our government needs to decide if it wants to embrace a rugby reality in South Africa that may not be moving along at the pace they’d like (which may be construed as slightly unrealistic) and rather do everything they can to embrace a WINNING team that will do wonders for the nation, the commercial component and the future of rugby for aspiring black and white players. Do you think young black players will want to be a part of a rugby team that loses and has no money behind it? Strange logic?

Here’s what it comes down to… South African Rugby fans (whatever colour they are) need to show government just how serious we are about our sport. We need mass action of our own. Not some frikkin’ email petition. Not a Facebook group. Something big. Something that our team, Jake White and the history of the Green Jersey is worthy of. We are so good at whining and crap at doing anything constructive about it.

I need you help. How can we make this message crystal clear?

  • http://www.nicharalambous.com Nic

    Mike, I agree with most of what you are saying, but I find there to be some paradoxical talk in the post.

    Your last paragraph calls for action, not a facebook group, something great, something large, something that will change the way things work I guess.

    Do you not think that this is how the strikes started? Someone saying something along these lines? Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it and regret it.

  • http://myafritude.blogspot.com/ Candice

    Mike, I agree with you. Personally think that gov. needs to start listening to the people more, many a ‘war’ has been averted through healthy dialogue – does it really need to get to this? The frustrations are real BUT the violence is not necessary. The minority trouble makers need to be managed by the rest of the strikers otherwise very quickly the sympathy will evaporate.

  • http://www.mikestopforth.com Mike

    Nic – you’ll see earlier in the post that I wholeheartedly support mass action as a constitutionally-empowered approach to making a strong political statement. I don’t support mobs. If we need to get 50,000 pissed off rugby supporters to march on parliament (peacefully) wearing our green and gold and chanting Shosholoza at the top of our lungs – is that such a bad thing?

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  • http://www.vinnylingham.com Vinny Lingham

    Couldn’t agree more with you Mike – well put!

    If you look at the poor performance of the cricket side in the world cup with the quota system they had to ensure, it’s no wonder they failed to deliver – I pray that doesn’t have to Rugby…

    And for those of you who don’t know me – I’m Indian South African and a huge rugby fan – screw the colour divide – just bring it home!!

  • http://clivesimpkins.blogs.com Clive Simpkins

    Mike, can’t agree with your stated temptation to leave SA. Supposedly civilised, cultured, first-world French students recently trashed cars and civil infrastructure for weeks on end when they were unhappy. People of a certain social stratum across the globe become violent when they strike or engage in protest action. That’s all about a social conscience and social evolution. We’ll get there some day.

    The UK’s healthcare and other infrastructures are in serious disarray. The USA has social ills of an unimaginable magnitude. So just because our cages are being rattled (and yes, there are some deeply regrettable and indeed unforgivable deaths as a result of the present strike-driven medical neglect) we shouldn’t sink into a slough of despond. There will always be the criminal element in any society around the world that will use legit protest action as a cover for their ugly deeds. We’re not alone and nor are we unique in this. Warmest regards, Clive

  • Barry

    Mike, agree fully. I too have had these thoughts flashing through my head about leaving. Havent acted on them, but they are there nonetheless. Clive, I take your point being that the grass isnt greener on the other side. We sit in this beautiful land with so many contrasts and dichotomies, leave or not to leave, stay and fight. My first reaction is always stay and fight…we have much to fight for in SA and by fight I dont mean violence. I mean really try and make a difference as you are suggesting, so lets do the march to parliament with the Green and Gold on Im in!!

  • http://www.matthewbuckland.com matthew buckland

    wow mike. you’ve summed it up for me. in fact I started writing a very similar blog lastnight starting off in almost identical fashion… but i didnt have time to finish. Think I will now.

  • Graeme

    Mike, I’ve been thinking these exact same things for the last few days. The rugby transformation issue provides a typical example of how the government seems to be slowly destroying the areas of excellence in our country (another being the health service). Like you I’m looking to emigrate to Oz now before any of my family becomes a victim or before the country falls apart.

    Clive, you can’t even begin to compare the social problems of SA to those of France or the U.K. Just look at the rape or murder rates (SA’s is at least 20 times higher). But you are correct to state that all countries grapple with serious social problems (SA’s just seem to be out of control).

  • http://www.aim911.co.za Wynand

    Mike of course it’s sad and yes plenty times most of us feel the way you do I guess.BUT Mike, it’s not the whole story, history, they say, repeats itself. We are seeing I believe, a repeat of 1922 when the miners (white, mind you) were suppressed by Genl Jannie Smuts, when the mining magnets were making plenty and the workers felt they had no re-course.

    Let’s face it Mike, when we read letters to the Editor, from a disgruntled teacher or janitor in the Courthouse building, complaining about their pay packets, we hardly ever read the letters properly.

    Now they’ve said enough and yes (unfortunatley) they’ve turned to violence.

    Mike as you know I do a lot of crime fighting work around the country, and quite honestly, if I move in Alexandra or other townships, I still do not understand what has really changed (politically) for these people, since 1994.

    I would like to invite the readers of these blogs to come with me on an escorted tour of those ‘suburbs’ and see the conditions; conditions created by POVERTY Mike, nothing else.

    I believe we need a major drive in this country to really uplift people and to get them to a level where they actually live like humans.

    Of course, now, as ever in the past, the politicians and union leaders take absolute advantage of the emotions of the masses; it is the fellow on the lower rung of the ladder that is pushed forward by the masses, so that you never see the fat cats, just the same as you never read about arrests of fat cat criminals, the syndicate leaders; you only ever see the little man was exposed. The cowardice of the fat cat combined with the gullibility of the masses, is the fuel that drives this enormous engine.

    Therefore I believe we as a nation, need to take cogniscance of the facts and see how the masses can be moved a notch or two up.

    In the crime environment we constantly see it Mike, the masses ( the glue sniffing youth, the hungry peasant) is abused by the gold chain clad BMW driving villain who pockets it.

    Now we’ve seen excellent programs such as crimeline instituted by Primedia and we have the opportunity to contribute in some way, and yet, and yet, I’ve heard such negative comments on that issue this pat week.

    It seems it’s the only way we ever give attention to something – is when someone wrecks a car during a demonstration, when fires are lit.

    We, the spectators, need to rise to the occasion and yes, you said it, do something.

    I do not fully agree with your linking the rugby argument with the strike action; the former can be and will ultimately be regulated by the commercial powers that created it in the first instance, namely the sponsors. It is a commercial excercise in the first instance, it seems, with the sponsors taking full advantage of it in what is regarded as a free economy.

    The latter (strike) started of as a legal recourse, but due to those elements we’ve already identified, has gotten out of hand.

    I reckon this government does have the political will and also the means to control the situation and I believe the South African people will eventually make it work. We’ve seen only 13 years of democracy and that, I’m afraid is not enough to have given it the necessary momentum required to truely reform. From the Vereeniging Peace Accord (1905) after the Anglo-Boer War to the date of ‘freedom’ was in excess of eighty years. Let’s give it some time. Other countries have attained what we want, only through civil wars. No, Mike, I believe we need to give it time.

    Clive so magnificantly showed us the parallels in Europe and America – we’re no different, we have ups and downs yes, we certainly have major challenges, but hey, we’re not only multi-cultural, we’re also multi national – almost every second person has a different opinion from our own, so what say I, it makes the challenge so much more to be pursued.

    If you ask me Mike, don’t leave, don’t consider it. This country needs the thinking capacity folks the likes of you possess, much more than you might appreciate.

    You have a wonderfull tool in this blog Mike; without turning political, you can use this to the very best benefit of the people of South Africa; next week, Mike, you’ll feel better about it!

    Thanx for being so honest about it mate.

  • http://www.mikestopforth.com Mike

    Thanks all for your comments.

    Perhaps I need to explain myself a bit clearer. First of all this was a statement about rugby, not about crime. I mentioned crime only because it seems the default reason for people to up and leave SA, or justify having left, and I wanted to make it clear this was NOT my story. I also made it clear though that I am not immune or apathetic to the real problem of crime in SA.

    The real point of this discussion was to point out just how heartbroken I am (and heartbroken is the closest damn word I can find for the emotions I felt) at the shambles we find sport in when it mixes too closely with politics.

    When I spoke about leaving the country, it was an attempt to illustrate just how painful watching SA’s powerful sporting fraternity crumble under petty arguments is to me – painful enough to actually get me anywhere close to thinking that emigration would ever even be an option. Hopefully, if you know me well enough you know just how strongly and positively I feel about the future of SA, and mine and my family’s future in it. This was an attempt to illustrate to those of you who know me just how much of an impact this is having on me and possibly other Saffa’s like me.

  • http://www.aim911.co.za Wynand

    Hey Mike, I understand you friend, I feel agrieved sometimes myself when I see the chaos; did not try to dislocate your story

  • Graeme

    I think people with young children feel less inclined to put up with all the chaos – it’s a basic fear (for survival I suppose).

    I wish we could all enjoy the test rugby (and build up to the world cup) without having to despair at all the political interference.

    Anyway it should be a great game on Saturday and at least this time we seem to have almost a full strength team.

  • http://www.yuppiechef.co.za Andrew Smith

    Mike sitting in Perth, chatting to other Saffas –

    Expat 1: Ye mate, I left because of the crime. Sister got hijacked. Couldn’t live with the fear anymore.

    Expat 2: I left because of the education. Couldn’t afford private schools. Government schools were headed downhill. What about you Mike?

    Mike (newly expat): I left because of Luke Watson. Couldn’t stand watching the bloke on TV. Felt it would be easier to support George Gregan.

  • http://bayareasearch.wordpress.com Catherine

    Well if you’re a rugby fan, don’t emigrate to the USA, as here NO OTHER SPORT EXISTS other than baseball, basketball and American football. It’s not pretty.

  • http://sarugbyview.blogspot.com/ IITQ / SARugbyFan

    Hey Mike

    I hear you on the pain of the last two weeks. It has been pretty miserable being a South African rugby fan.

    Certainly Andrew’s comment above is useful perspective.

    Having been fighting intruders into my home this last week my attention has been a bit diverted.

    I remain committed and positive. I also believe we need to do things to change the situation. SARSU contains a few of my positive activist rugby disciples! My crime fighting activities have been curtailed by work and study over the past few months, but they will kick into gear again soon.

    With specific regard to the rugby, I think the manner of engagement is the entirely worrying thing about the last two weeks. We just cannot have our coach and administrators at each others throats this way. And equally, it is demoralising having politicians who do not even watch the game prescribing action.

    But to an extent we are reaping the whirlwind. While you are right in saying it only thirteen years and development has shown some results, largely it has been an abject failure. Particularly with regard to our black players who largely come from private schools and Zimbabwe. We have too few Makhaya Ntini’s in rugby, although Ashwin Willemse is a notable exception.

    Our Springbok rugby team needs more black players for a number of reasons I mentioned in this post I made from a year ago (I almost got death threats from the rugby right wing!).

    I think the grains of truth in our politicians rantings are that rugby could and should be in a much better position with regards to development than it is now. Tens if not hundreds of millions have been wasted on rugby development programmes that have failed to deliver. While our u19 and u21 sides are largely transformed, our Super 14 and Springbok side is not.

    I believe that the nub of the problem is that many of the stakeholders don’t want change. They may pay it lip service, but in reality, in their heart of hearts, they just want things to be the way they were when they were at school in the sixties and seventies and the Afrikaner schools dominated rugby -as they largely still do.

    This is a very old issue. For the last 50 years, English players complained of prejudice in provincial selections. At my school games, Afrikaans parents would shout things about “rooinekke” (“red necks” – Afrikaans for English people – based on the sunburnt necks of the English soldiers in the Anglo Boer war).

    But this is no longer an Afrikaans/English issue. It is about that desire to change. If our stakeholders – read the boards of the provincial unions – can’t get excited about taking the game to the masses and expanding the player base to even more hundreds of thousands, change won’t happen. And it hasn’t.

    We’re arguing about black faces in the Bok team now because of that. Of course it’s a misplaced sadly racial argument. But it is happening because the broad structure and distribution of the game has hardly changed.

    Further, we have a coach with a history of confrontation – his threat to leave for better pay on the eve of a test match won him few friends. Jake’s shaky logic – or lack of logic regarding some of his selections (even beyond Luke Watson) – has made it difficult to support some of his decisions. Jake white is an abominably bad politician – only slightly better than Nick Mallet. he tends to say things he shouldn’t and fights battles instead of wars. Picking Luke Watson for games years ago might have proved his point. Instead he has waged a verbal battle in the press. Again this is nothing new – battles over selection have waged for the last 50 years with the WP and Bulls supporters in particular at the selectors throats depending on the representation of their favourites in the team.

    Neither is interference in selection new. Doc Craven and Louis Luyt often overruled selectors and coaches. Of course that does not make it right, and we are now in a professional era not an amateur one.

    The flip side of this coin, is that this battle is not purely about rugby. It is about power. In the desire of many black politicians to get back at the Afrikaners for many years of abuses, rugby represents a handy target.

    Your sadness and talk of leaving is an amazingly common refrain of the past few weeks. Despite all the unbelievable challenges we face in this country, sport gives so many hope and brief respite. As in New Zealand, even our stock market reflects the euphoria or disappointment of a weekend’s sporting results. What I think many politicians with no real love of sport underestimate, is that despite the very real perspective that Andrew Smith brings above, feeling demoralized about our rugby future might just be the straw that breaks the backs of many who struggle against the frontier nature of what living in South Africa is.

    We need balanced debate however. We need to point out the truths in each argument and the fault where it lies. Rugby administrators, the Bok coach and politicians all share blame in the mess that we’re currently wading through.

    I’ll blog about it shortly. My attentions have been otherwise occupied over the past two weeks.

  • http://sarugbyview.blogspot.com/ IITQ / SARugbyFan

    Oh dear – broken tag above. Can you delete that?

    Here it is again:

    Hey Mike

    I hear you on the pain of the last two weeks. It has been pretty miserable being a South African rugby fan.

    Certainly Andrew’s comment above is useful perspective.

    Having been fighting intruders into my home this last week my attention has been a bit diverted.

    I remain committed and positive. I also believe we need to do things to change the situation. SARSU contains a few of my positive activist rugby disciples! My crime fighting activities have been curtailed by work and study over the past few months, but they will kick into gear again soon.

    With specific regard to the rugby, I think the manner of engagement is the entirely worrying thing about the last two weeks. We just cannot have our coach and administrators at each others throats this way. And equally, it is demoralising having politicians who do not even watch the game prescribing action.

    But to an extent we are reaping the whirlwind. While you are right in saying it only thirteen years and development has shown some results, largely it has been an abject failure. Particularly with regard to our black players who largely come from private schools and Zimbabwe. We have too few Makhaya Ntini’s in rugby, although Ashwin Willemse is a notable exception.

    Our Springbok rugby team needs more black players for a number of reasons I mentioned in this post I made from a year ago (I almost got death threats from the rugby right wing!).

    I think the grains of truth in our politicians rantings are that rugby could and should be in a much better position with regards to development than it is now. Tens if not hundreds of millions have been wasted on rugby development programmes that have failed to deliver. While our u19 and u21 sides are largely transformed, our Super 14 and Springbok side is not.

    I believe that the nub of the problem is that many of the stakeholders don’t want change. They may pay it lip service, but in reality, in their heart of hearts, they just want things to be the way they were when they were at school in the sixties and seventies and the Afrikaner schools dominated rugby -as they largely still do.

    This is a very old issue. For the last 50 years, English players complained of prejudice in provincial selections. At my school games, Afrikaans parents would shout things about “rooinekke” (“red necks” – Afrikaans for English people – based on the sunburnt necks of the English soldiers in the Anglo Boer war).

    But this is no longer an Afrikaans/English issue. It is about that desire to change. If our stakeholders – read the boards of the provincial unions – can’t get excited about taking the game to the masses and expanding the player base to even more hundreds of thousands, change won’t happen. And it hasn’t.

    We’re arguing about black faces in the Bok team now because of that. Of course it’s a misplaced sadly racial argument. But it is happening because the broad structure and distribution of the game has hardly changed.

    Further, we have a coach with a history of confrontation – his threat to leave for better pay on the eve of a test match won him few friends. Jake’s shaky logic – or lack of logic regarding some of his selections (even beyond Luke Watson) – has made it difficult to support some of his decisions. Jake white is an abominably bad politician – only slightly better than Nick Mallet. he tends to say things he shouldn’t and fights battles instead of wars. Picking Luke Watson for games years ago might have proved his point. Instead he has waged a verbal battle in the press. Again this is nothing new – battles over selection have waged for the last 50 years with the WP and Bulls supporters in particular at the selectors throats depending on the representation of their favourites in the team.

    Neither is interference in selection new. Doc Craven and Louis Luyt often overruled selectors and coaches. Of course that does not make it right, and we are now in a professional era not an amateur one.

    The flip side of this coin, is that this battle is not purely about rugby. It is about power. In the desire of many black politicians to get back at the Afrikaners for many years of abuses, rugby represents a handy target.

    Your sadness and talk of leaving is an amazingly common refrain of the past few weeks. Despite all the unbelievable challenges we face in this country, sport gives so many hope and brief respite. As in New Zealand, even our stock market reflects the euphoria or disappointment of a weekend’s sporting results. What I think many politicians with no real love of sport underestimate, is that despite the very real perspective that Andrew Smith brings above, feeling demoralized about our rugby future might just be the straw that breaks the backs of many who struggle against the frontier nature of what living in South Africa is.

    We need balanced debate however. We need to point out the truths in each argument and the fault where it lies. Rugby administrators, the Bok coach and politicians all share blame in the mess that we’re currently wading through.

    I’ll blog about it shortly. My attentions have been otherwise occupied over the past two weeks.

  • http://sarugbyview.blogspot.com/ IITQ / SARugbyFan

    Hi Mike

    One more thing – it wasn’t a power station that burnt. It was a substation. If a power station burnt down the entire country would be short of about 3600 MW and we’d all be in trouble.

    The substation fires were apparently caused by cable theft.

    More here.

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