The Springboks: South Africa’s therapy

It is indeed true that sport does have the power to unite people. If you doubted this assertion, you would have been convinced by the victory of the Springboks, South Africa’s rugby national team, over New Zealand to lift the World Cup for the fourth time, winning it back-to-back. While rugby is generally regarded as a white sport, the majority of South Africans were behind their national team.

The fact that the majority of the players are white, with few black players, did not disrupt the unity of purpose of the team. This time, the road to victory was more electrifying than the previous one. South Africa won the semi-finals by beating England with only one goal difference in their match that ended 16 to15 in favour of South Africa. The same score difference repeated itself again during the final, with South Africa winning 12 to 11. These victories were sweeter because they came through the proverbial “blood and sweat”.

South Africa’s participation and victory in this competition were celebrated on the continent. This is because very few African teams participate in this competition. The Africans, as a people fond of solidarity, supported the Springboks because it was a team representing Africa.

During the semi-final game against England, my friends in Zimbabwe and Zambia were not just happy that the Springboks emerged victorious against England in an electrifying game; they were also viewing the game from the lenses of an African team defeating a former colonial power. An emotional and historical aspect was brought to the sport.

It should therefore not be a surprise that other African countries were solidly behind the Springboks. Congratulations to our neighbours and the Springboks!

South Africa needed this victory to serve as an opioid or anaesthesia. The country is going through a lot in terms of crime, economy, political instability and a general decline in many facets. Of course, this has been ongoing for a number of years. You simply need to remember that at one point, within a period of 10 years, South Africa had experienced four presidents. Two of these were similarly recalled by their unstable ruling party.

Parallels may be drawn with the United Kingdom, which had numerous prime ministers in even a shorter period of time. But South African problems are steeper. Just last month, former President Thabo Mbeki launched a scathing attack on the ruling party government, the ANC, arguing that the country is in steep decline and, as a result, ordinary citizens and the private sector are stepping up with initiatives to fix several state failures.

In their book titled 'The Fall of the ANC', published in 2017, scholars and authors Prince Mashele and Mzukisi Qobo saw this coming when they concluded that “political governance in South Africa has collapsed. Scandals of corruption, evidence of nepotism, rampant maladministration in provinces, incompetence in public offices and a general decline in the quality of leadership are there for all to see.” This was before load-shedding and revelations of grand-scale state capture corruption.

South Africa’s reputation internationally has declined. The South Africa of humanitarian Nelson Mandela and great intellectual Thabo Mbeki is no more. We are left with a South Africa of xenophobia and load-shedding. We are left with a South Africa that is dubbed the “crime capital of the world”.

I came across a Swiss tourist who was on his way to Impalila Island.

He is a real estate businessman in his country. I was surprised to hear that he wanted to invest in South Africa but instead decided otherwise. He is now considering investing in Botswana or Namibia. At a personal level, South Africa was my favourite destination.

There is no time I think of travelling to South Africa without factoring in being attacked and harmed, if not killed, over a cell phone as you visit various wonderful modern and historical sites. The examples are many, all pointing to the degeneration of a once-powerhouse on our continent, both politically, economically and morally. Even countries such as Rwanda, which is emerging from genocide, have overtaken South Africa on all major indicators.

It is from that perspective that the win of the Springboks offered an important escape for our neighbours.

South Africa’s failure is not a small matter. The country is too big, too important and too strategic to fail. A strong and formidable South Africa is good for Africa and Namibia. A weaker and disregarded South Africa is bad news for Namibia.

This is not only in the area of our dollar that is linked to the rand. The win of the Springboks is really a good breather for our neighbour. The reality is that a few days after the jubilations are over, the country will return to earth to face its many problems, including crime, load-shedding, and others. This is if load-shedding does take place during the celebrations. We can only hope that during this temporary relief and therapeutic moment, someone emerges with a solution because we really need South Africa back. God bless South Africa. Amandla!

*Muthoni waKongola is a native of Kongola in the Zambezi Region primarily concerned with analysing society and offering ideas for a better Namibia. She is reachable at [email protected] or @wakongola on X.