In today's column, in a special World Cup commemorative edition of the Cape Times, we write about how sport is a
reflection of the state of society. In South Africa there are a number of parallels to be drawn. Our national soccer side is
slowly emerging as a capable team - if not quite to World Cup standard yet - and the country itself is grappling
with the challenges of poverty and underdevelopment. Sport is divided, and so are the country's communities.
While the World Cup has united the country behind a common cause, there is a lot of work to be done before we can
say we are a unified nation.
A recent article in the Economist (July 12 – 18, 2010) claims that we can know a nation through the games it plays, and how it plays them. The article suggests that America’s dominant sports rely on highly specialized players and “minute divisions of labour” and professional games structured around television advertising breaks – pointing to a particularly American view of capitalism.
Soccer, it might be said, is a more egalitarian enterprise. Certainly its accessibility to anyone with an open patch of land and some sort of ball allows a different approach to sports than, say, cricket. Could it also be said, then, that the rise of football in South Africa parallels our socio-political and economic evolution?
In South Africa, soccer is largely neglected, much as some
residential and economic sectors are neglected. Soccer tries for the quick fix
by importing coaches. Communities also expect quick fixes brought in from
above, and government tries in vain to provide them.
We know that the chances of Bafana Bafana
doing well in the World Cup were slim, but we expressed optimism anyway, and hoped for a miracle. Similarly for Africa generally: The world’s perception is that we need an economic
miracle, while there are those who believe the continent can manage. The
uncertain rise of our national football team looks very much like the rise of Africa.
In Cape Town, we are surer of ourselves as an international city. It has been argued in our column that we are still a bit shaky in our interpretation of what it means to be world class, but there is no denying that we have much to be proud of.
Here are some additional references.
The first Olympics to have TV coverage were in Germany in 1936, and these were in fact the first live broadcasts
of a sports event in history. They were not international broadcasts, but demonstrated a technical ability to
send television signals to viewing areas away from the stadia. [Source: Television
Quarterly: How Host Nations Use the Olympics to Burnish their Country’s Public Image - China is asking the
world to appreciate its culture, admire its economic miracle. by Greg Vitiello.]
“According to the UN Resident Coordinator for Samoa, the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau, Ms. Nileema Noble,
‘sport is a universal language that is spoken and understood by all human beings all over the world. It is a
language understood from America, to Thailand, to Kenya, to Japan to Papua New Guinea, to Tokelau and to Samoa.
Sport engages and brings our communities, our nations and people together in a way few if any other activity can
manage.’” [source: UNOSDP (UN Office on
Sport and Development for Peace)]
Sport is not just about uniting communities or being able to field world class teams in international events. South African sporting legend Lucas Radebe is patron of the programme Beyond Sport, which uses sport as a conflict resolution tool in hotspots around the world.
The UN Office on Sport and Development for Peace claims that sport can help achieve the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). [Source: UNOSDP]
FIFA has made some investment in soccer in South Africa, such as the Centre for Hope in Khayelitsha. There is also the
German-funded Power Child Campus in Mfuleni that established extracurricular activities along with soccer fields,
the theory being that sports build ties while dealing with frustration, lack of perspective and crime.
