South Africa World Cup win is a beacon of hope but it doesn’t change problems that still grip a nation

Party time: South Africa fans watch the World Cup Final at the Pirates Rugby Club in Johannesburg
AP
Daniel Gallan4 November 2019

The sight of Siya Kolisi — his country’s first black rugby captain — lifting the trophy for South Africa rugby was welcomed as a watershed moment for a racially unified society further trying to ­distance itself from its traumatic past.

The day before, South Africa’s ­economic outlook was downgraded from stable to negative. Today, an ­average of 58 murders will be ­committed in the country, 114 people will be raped and 200,000 will go to bed without a roof over their head.

What does this sporting triumph mean for South Africa? Everything. It is a light in the darkness, a lightning rod for change and a platform for role ­models and future heroes.

It simultaneously means nothing, the final bang by the circus drummer whose function is to turn heads away from the stinking heap of national debt, rising unemployment and the looting of state coffers.

South Africa’s ability to hold contrasting ­positions at the same time is its most defining feature. It is at once a nation of great optimism, of Nelson Mandela and his Rainbow Nation dream. It is also a land soaked in blood, a country that has never truly freed itself from the impact of colonialism and apartheid.

This is a country that saw the world in black and white terms. In many ways it still does. Fly into Cape Town, drive past slums and make your way to the lush suburbs that surround Table Mountain. There you see how closely rich and poor coexist without ever mingling.

The Springboks mean many things to many people. A hundred more World Cups will not erase the role the leaping antelope played in the subjugation of the country’s majority. The tyrannical National Party leaned heavily on rugby’s ties with a particular brand of Afrikaans masculinity and used the sport to ­champion its warped views on racial superiority. Rugby was for strong, ­virtuous whites. Football was for simple blacks.

But rugby survived in townships where black people still passed and kicked the oval ball. Despite a lack of resources, the sport ­maintained a heartbeat. It is this pulse that ensured Kolisi developed the raw materials to captain the Springboks. His club, the African Bombers in Zwide outside Port Elizabeth, was founded in 1954, four years after the signing of the Group Areas Act that separated the country by race.

It is difficult for rugby fans not from South Africa to fully grasp what the Springbok emblem represents.

Even white South Africans, who were spared the indignity of being treated as non-citizens in their native land, and who were arguably largely allowed to sidestep their role in history thanks to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1996, cannot truly understand the depth of these wounds.

In Pictures | England vs South Africa, Rugby World Cup final 2019

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There are still large portions of ‘non-white’ South Africans who are ardent New Zealand supporters and who cheer for the Crusaders whenever the Super Rugby franchise visits. These fans are called traitors and sell-outs by others who consider the Springbok emblem a totem of national identity.

Mandela, of course, played a vital role in this mythology when he used the Springbok as a symbol of unification in his New South Africa. His successor, Thabo Mbeki, also understood this pull and, like Mandela in 1995, ensured that he was present when South Africa won the World Cup in 2007.

But South Africa is a different place today — 25 years into democracy and disillusioned. Almost a decade of waste and corruption under ousted president Jacob Zuma has seen the country become the most unequal in the world in terms of wealth distribution ­according to the World Bank. Water shortages and electric blackouts are common occurrences. The standard of education has fallen off a cliff outside of elite ­private schools.

On the field, the Springboks struggled. In 2016, defeats by Italy and Wales ended off a dismal year for the Boks that saw the All Blacks register 57 points in Durban. A year later, a 57-0 drubbing in Auckland emphasised just how far the Boks had fallen. Then Rassie Erasmus took charge of the team in 2018. His first big decision was to appoint Kolisi as captain. He was ­criticised for playing a political game. It was a masterstroke.

In their first Test together, Kolisi and Erasmus oversaw a 42-39 win over ­England. On the pitch, the side ­swaggered without losing the ­forward-heavy approach that has always been a Springbok trademark. Off the field, coach and captain were not afraid to speak directly to society’s ills. This served a dual purpose; part motivation, part perspective. “There are a lot of problems in South Africa,” Erasmus said after the final. “Pressure is not having a job, or [having] one of your close relatives murdered. Rugby shouldn’t be something that creates pressure, rugby should be ­something that creates hope.”

Kolisi embodies that hope. Born into poverty, he has transcended the ­confines of athletic achievement. “Growing up I never dreamed of a day like this,” Kolisi said. “When I was a kid all I was thinking about was getting my next meal.”

An uncountable number of children in South Africa will wonder the same thing this evening. Mandela said sport has the power to change the world. If one hungry child now also wonders if they might win a World Cup, Kolisi and his team will have done just that.

Daniel Gallan is a London-based South African journalist who grew up in Johannesburg.

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