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 When talking about transformation and sport in South Africa after 1994, the image that comes to mind is that of president Nelson Mandela wearing Springbok captain Francois Pienaar’s jersey when South Africa won the Rugby World Cup in 1995.
And perhaps now, with the 2010 FIFA World Cup almost at an end, an image of South Africans from all backgrounds supporting Bafana Bafana and waving their country’s flag can also be seen in this context.
Even though these images are special and no doubt contributed to reconciliation and a feeling of nationhood, transformation in sport is an issue that runs much deeper and deserves a much more critical look.
This is what Ashwin Desai and other writers attempt to do in The Race to Transform: Sport in Post-Apartheid South Africa.
Bafana Bafana's performance
The fact that Bafana Bafana does not perform as well as we would like them to, is a result of transformation challenges, according to Dale T. McKinley. He writes in one of the essays in the book, called ‘Transformation from above: The upside-down state of South African soccer’ that soccer was not in need of racial transformation by the end of apartheid. However, it needed finances and resources, which the apartheid government had purposefully denied this “black” sport.
But as part of the government’s Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) framework, subsidies to local municipalities were cut and public resources were not available to create and maintain sports facilities and develop young players.
SAFA, a fully incorporated private body, had to take over. But according to McKinley they focussed all their attention on the transformation of their organisation’s administration. Their soccer development programmes have yet to bear fruit.
A select few players are developed and supported by the privately owned clubs, but this is geared towards the club’s own financial gain. Good players retire and are difficult to replace, because there is no sustainable development of players from grassroots level.
McKinley concludes: “If a government that is in the process of spending billions to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup of Soccer cannot ensure that schoolkids in the most needy of communities have decent soccer facilities and equipment, or that meaningful development programmes are in place for players in those communities where soccer is one of the most basic forms of social relations and recreational activity, then it should be clear that things have gone horribly wrong”.
Transformation challenges
The essays in this book draw parallels between the social and economic transformation that happened in this country since 1994 and transformation in sport.
After apartheid there was an obvious need to uplift the masses that had been socially and economically disadvantaged. But at the same time, according to Desai, there was the desire to attract foreign investment by showing that reconciliation had speedily taken place in South Africa. So, the upper class had to be rapidly de-racialised with policies such as BEE. “The logic underlying this paradigm was that the benefits of economic growth would ‘naturally’ trickle down to the poorest members of society”.
Similarly, after 1994, South Africa had to show that their sports teams represented the racial diversity of the country and quotas were introduced. This led to the grooming of a select few black sportsmen and women, while at grassroots level, many communities still do not have adequate sporting facilities.
Solutions, not just critique
In this context Desai and Veriava look critically at the transformation of swimming in South Africa, Desai and Vahed look at cricket and Justin van der Merwe looks at athletics. There is also a case study of the only black rugby team in KwaZulu Natal and an essay on gender and women’s soccer in the book.
The Race to Transform is a very interesting book, providing history and analysis of a variety of sports in South Africa. The essays contained in this book are all written in a very engaging manner that would even draw in a reader that is not an avid sport watcher. The writers made use of interviews with various key informants while conducting their research and they use the interviewees’ direct words in their essays. This not only adds credibility to their writing, but also makes the essays more interesting to read.
The best feature of this book is that the writers do not only criticise the rate and method of transformation in sport; they also suggest possible solutions to transformation challenges.
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