South Africa

Dave Zirin of The Nation has a fascinating take on the intersections of xenophobia, violence, ubuntu, and sport in South Africa today. Here is a taste:

Criticism has been widespread about the lack of response by South African, not to mention Western, leaders. But there is an important, overlooked and–we can only pray–decisive tide of condemnation coming from that most global of sports, soccer. Soccer players in the African leagues often move from country to country in search of new challenges and better salaries. They are heroes on the continent, and many aren’t willing to be silent.

Gilbert Mushangazike, a star striker from Zimbabwe who plays for South Africa’s Orlando Pirates, said recently, “We are heroes when we score goals but we are people’s enemies on the streets. Although I’m here legally, I’m so scared that I’m even afraid to walk on the streets or go visit my friends. This whole thing has affected me and many of my teammates. We are simply not taking this whole thing very well. We are all human beings and people must treat [us] with respect and dignity. There are many white foreigners out there but they are not attacked. It’s a good thing that I’m flying out to Zimbabwe for national team duty because I don’t know how I would survive, because I’m even scared to go shopping.”

Although I believe that Zirin, who writes about the intersections of sport and society, is fundamentally right, the problem with asking athletes to speak up is that when we ask them to do so, the implicit message is that we want to hear them when they agree with us. Otherwise, we want them to remain silent. The same can be said of Hollywood stars and other famous folks. Generally speaking, I do not care what an athlete or an actor or a rock star thinks about politics unless it is clear that they have done their homework and really know what they are talking about. Still, in this case, if African soccer stars can speak up and make a difference, I hope that they will do so.

It was a good weekend to be a South African sports fan as both Bafana Bafana and the Springboks won big international matches. Bafana Bafana defeated Equatorial Guinea 4-1 in a game that serves as a qualifying match for the African Cup of Nations. It also was part of the World Cup Qualifying process, but of course South Africa, as hosts, receive an exemption. The Springboks, meanwhile, handled a good Wales team handily, 43-17, in Peter De Villiers’ debut as the national rugby team’s head coach. 

With 2010 and the World Cup, and thus South Africa’s global close-up, fast approaching, the country’s tourist industry will become increasingly prominent. Moeketsi Mosola, chief executive of South African Tourism, is worried that crime is South Africa’s Achilles’ heel and that all of the work going into preparations for 2010 will be for naught if crime is not brought under control. Stories such as those coming out of Alexandra, in which foreigners have been brutally attacked, will serve only to underscore Mosola’s concerns. The fact that the foreign victims are anything but tourists probably will be lost to those living abroad who are considering a trip to South Africa but worry about crime. But more important, the events in Alex reveal the tensions within South African society, where economic insecurity and xenophobia merge with catastrophic results. It is all well and good to worry about crime because of the effect it may have on tourists, but it is even more important to address crime because of the ongoing effects it has on South Africans, and to address the underlying causes that lead to crime to begin with.

The head coach of Bafana Bafana, Alberto Parreira, has resigned to spend time with his sick wife. When officials from the South African Football Association (SAFA) announce Parreira’s successor on May 6, many expect that they will settle on another Brazilian, Joel Santana. Naturally SAFA and the country’s rabid fan base hope to ease the transition, as the next few years will be crucial in South African soccer circles, as th4e next coach will presumably lead Bafana Bafana into the 2010 World Cup, which the country is, of course, hosting. Recent years have been unkind to South African football, which has declined significantly since Bafana Bafana’s 1996-1997 heyday. Perhaps Santana will be the man to lead the team and thus the country to glory. The Springboks and Proteas seem to have garnered the bulk of media attention in recent years, both for their successes and their controversies, and yet in the end, the masses of South Africans love football and Bafana Bafana foremost.

Periodically you’ll hear the whispering: FIFA is displeased with South Africa’s progress in preparing to host the World Cup in 2010. Every sign of “political instability” (which is a patronizing way of referring to political division, which every vibrant democracy has) or possible internal conflicts in the organizing effort sends the FIFA overlords and Afro-pessimists scurrying to consider other options. Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of South Africa’s World Cup Local Organising Committee (LOC), rejects reports that the body is beset by infighting. President Thabo Mbeki and Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile insist that the World Cup will go on and along with many optimists that they will be a rousing success, with some going so far as to argue that the World Cup will do for Cape Town what the Olympics did for Bercelona, w3hich hosted the Summer Games in 1992.

To be sure there are legitimate concerns about the World Cup. The recent power outages must be disquieting for even the most cockeyed of optimists and while crime is an easy bugaboo for the country’s detractors, it is also a very real issue. But as with so much in South African life, internal dissent seems to break down largely along racial lines, with whites being the most pessimistic about the country’s chances to pull off what will be an impressive (and at times seemingly Herculean) task. South Africa will accomplish a successful and historic World Cup.

Will there be glitches both in the lead-up and over the course of the event itself? Surely. Just as there are glitches in the planning and lead-up to every Olympics, World Cup, and other vital global sporting event. Surely it is more daunting to host an Olympics in London in 2012 than a World Cup in South Africa in 2010, and there will be similar infighting, political and infrastructural impediments and unanticipated issues that will emerge, and yet no one will question the innate ability of Londoners or of the English to handle such an immense undertaking. There were lots of questions about Athens’ ability and preparedness to handle the 2004 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee has found itself embroiled in scandal, particularly when it came to the awarding of the Salt Lake City bid. None of these aroused the sorts of reductionist concerns that haunt the 2010 preparations. Hopefully all of the doubters will be effusive in their praise — and their apologies — after what may prove to be the most lively of all World Cups.

In a game in which both Bafana Bafana and their Senegalese opponents needed a win (plus some help) to advance in the African Nations Cup, the two teams fought to a 1-1 draw, thus knocking one another out of the tournament. South Africa coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has his work cut out for him if his charges are to continue the history of host team successes in the World Cup and if Bafana Bafana is to be the African team that quadrennially strikes fear into the hearts of the more traditional powers. There is time yet — two-plus years is an eternity in international sport. But as of right now, South Africa’s most popular national team does not measure up.

Let’s forget, if at all possible, the power outages, political debates, Robert Mugabe’s destabilizing jackassery, and all of the other mundane grimness that afflicts South African public life these days. For the world of sport provides two of the saddest stories of all. The first is the fact that Bafana Bafana appears set to bow out of the African Nations Cup with barely a peep barring some sort of freak miracle involving St. Jude smiling upon their boots (and frowning upon some others). It seems like a long way from the rarefied air South African football seemed to occupy in the period from 1996 to 1998 or so.  If the possibility of a flameout from the country’s footballers isn’t enough to arouse paroxysms of frustration (and drinking) then the impending retirement of Protea Shaun Pollack will push most fans of South Africa’s sporting scene over the edge.

A number of stories caught my attention this weekend. Here are a few of them, with brief commentary as appropriate:

The Makana Football Association, which operated surreptitiously on Robben Island among the political prisoners has achieved recognition from FIFA, the sport’s governing body. A feature film, More Than Just a Game, starring Tsotsi’s Presley Chweneyagae, is to be released in South Africa in the next few weeks.

Thabo Mbeki recently has been stepping up his advocacy of a trilateral free trade area between South Africa, India, and Brazil. Mbeki believes that this trade bloc will give these leading nations in the developing world a stronger hand in trades with the World Trade Organization and will focus on addressing poverty and underdevelopment in the three countries and within the regional spheres that they dominate.

The Mail & Guardian’s “ZA @ Play” has an interview with Mark Gevisser, the respected observer of South African politics whose forthcoming book Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred is highly anticipated. The interview is fairly anodyne, truth be told, but the book should stand as a definitive early treatment of Thabo Mbeki’s life if it can avoid the pitfalls of polemicism and advocacy to which virtually all of the books on Mbeki up to now have succumbed. 

Finally, a bit of a controversy has enveloped one of my old stomping grounds, Rhodes University. Last year Anne Warmenhoven submitted a doctoral thesis to Rhodes’ psychology department, which approved the dissertation and granted Warmenhoven the PhD. Her topic is the late disgraced former Proteas captain Hansie Cronje. But the dissertation apparently is nowhere to be found, apparently because members of Cronje’s family only agreed to speak with Warmwnhoven under conditions of secrecy. Obviously this goes against every principle of academic freedom and openness, not to mention ideals of transparency that are supposed to be a hallmark of the New South Africa.

Nelson Mandela turned 89 today, birthday gifts pile up, and South Africa celebrates. The still vibrant liberation hero and South Africa’s first legitimate president still inspires hope, and continues to grow in popularity, whether dealing with his beloved South Africa, advising African leaders, or drawing the support of global football stars at a ceremony on Robben Island, where Mandela has said that soccer provided “a way of survival.” Mandela is the one African figure who is considered a global icon and hero.

It is easy to be cynical, about Africa and about just about anything. And Mandela is, of course, not beyond reproach. But despite all of my finely tempered professional cynicism, Mandela still stands as a hero to me and to millions in South Africa and across the globe. Happy birthday, Madiba.

Cape Town has a perception as a racist city, according to Danny Jordaan, South Africa’s Local Organizing Committee CEO for the 2010 World Cup. And he believes that the city (and the country in general) will have to shed that image if the 2010 event is to be a success.

As a step in that direction, Cape Town will host “90 Minutes for Mandela,” which will pit an Africa XI against a World XI of all time greats in honor of Madiba’s 89th birthday. The game will provide a litmus test, or at least a gauge, of where South Africa is in terms of its capacity to host a big event without major glitches.

The 2010 World Cup is going to be a vital moment for South Africa. In many ways it will represent the country’s coming out party, a sort of debut or “Sweet 16,” coming as it does sixteen years after the epochal events of 1994. In this sense the World Cup will be about much more than sport. With the rest of the world watching, South Africa can show that it belongs in the first rank of nations and it can reveal to a skeptical and patronizing world what an African nation is capable of given the opportunity.