Sport and politics

During apartheid times the national rugby team, known as the Springboks, were a whites-only team. Eventually, the situation in the country got so bad that South Africa was banned from international sports. Consequently many non-white South Africans followed foreign national rugby teams.

After apartheid and the reunification of the country, many coloured South Africans continued to support other teams and renounced the national side. Slowly they are being won over and it may take some time but many people, certainly in this part of the country, still support New Zealand.

The issue is the use of the Springbok emblem, name and franchise, which so-called coloured people associate which a whites-only rugby team of the past. Recently a move was mooted to remove this altogether, however for reasons unknown to me the decision was taken to retain the Springbok. As a compromise, it was moved to the other side of the shirt, with a protea (South Africa's national flower) replacing the springbok on the left side of the shirt. This doesn't seem like a compromise to me, but in time I think the country will put this behind it. I would love a chance to see the national side play in order to gauge these feelings, but certainly the club side The Stormers have the full support of the city in the Super 14s competition and the stadium is packed with all manner of Capetonians.

With respect to football, I have had many discussions with people here about the World Cup. Whether it's volunteers, teachers, taxi drivers or shopkeepers, people have indifferent or ambivalent feelings towards it. The people here love soccer and support Manchester United and Liverpool mainly, and they even possess knowledge of the lower English divisional teams like Crystal Palace! Despite this, there doesn't seem to be the excitement for the upcoming competition as you would find in other countries. One teacher at the school assures me that this is simply the relaxed South African attitude and that they will get behind the team 100% when the time comes but I'm not convinced of this. As expected, many believe that the money spent on the World Cup really ought to have been invested in healthcare and amenities in the townships, as Zuma promised when he gained the presidency. In view of the developing status of the country I'm inclined to agree.

Although most agree that South Africa will not be successful on the pitch, there is anxiety about issues off of it. Some people believe that prices will be increased in restaurants and bars (alcohol is so cheap here at present) and as a result the locals will be priced out of the city centres, with restaurant proprietors encouraging richer tourists into their establishemnets, even possibly rejecting locals outright. This may lead to further violence and crime. Time will tell.

Finally, cricket used to be heavily funded in the Western Cape and the school I am working at was one of the first in the locality to produce a team that competed with other schools in the region. This year funding has ceased and now the cricket season has ended without any inter-school matches being played. This is a real shame and hopefully is not a sign of things to come for the imminent football season, who we are coaching for potential games now.