Bafana Bafana supporters celebrate in the stands during their win over South Korea.
Image: AFP
NELSON Mandela once intimated the role of sport in society, saying — and I paraphrase — that sport unites people like no other.
This week, amid a lingering atmosphere of national doom and to a certain extent gloom itself, Bafana Bafana reignited a South African spirit of oneness that has successfully propelled a fractious society to scale greater heights.
For some of us elders who were fast asleep in the comfort of our homes as our national soccer team took to the field at 3am, we woke up to news of sheer of elation on radio, television and social media, with chants of Shosholoza in the background in some posts.
The God that we pray never disappoints. Many citizens are rightfully aggrieved by a litany of missteps that our democratic government has taken over the past three decades.
Don’t get me wrong: There is plenty for all of us to be thankful and proud of. We no longer are a people trapped in Sodom and Gomorrah, fighting to be free. That said, the advent of our imperfect freedom in April 1994 has exposed too many fault lines in our public governance system.
However, debatable as it is, the political will to improve the lives of our people is there, inadequate as it sometimes appears. My philosophy of life is that nothing is ever 100% perfect or imperfect. The margins of error in development depend on their extent.
Until Bafana Bafana pulled us all out of a state of despair this week, we'd been subjected to lengthy revelations of the rot that has taken root in our country’s security cluster, with the ongoing Madlanga Commission proving worthy of every penny that the state has allocated.
The movie script emerging out of the Madlanga Commission is award-winning in-the-making. It paints a sorry picture of a mafia state where a few, yet too powerful beyond measure, continue to hold an entire populace under a cowboy-like yoke of suppression.
Away from the Madlanga Commission, however, the government led by President Cyril Ramaphosa has been strenuously pushing back against the unfortunate narrative of anti-Black immigrants in our country. Again, as I argued recently, complaints and concerns about illegal immigration are legitimate, as the president himself has alluded to.
But when the depths of despair run too deep, you are left with the inevitable consequence of having paid lip service to the electorate.
Anti-migration populist forces such as March and March and Operation Dudula emerge out of the state's failures, positioning themselves as the “saviours” of the destitute majority who feel let down by those they elected to rule over them.
This is the state of our nation: Youth unemployment is skyrocketing, crooks are ruling, buildings are hijacked, squatter camps are mushrooming, and our elderly have remained on the waiting list for RDP houses since they first registered in 1998. The challenges are evidently ominous, yet I dare say they've never been insurmountable for a people who have overcome mountains of hurdles in the past.
I paint this picture not to amplify doom and gloom, nay. I paint it in order to juxtapose the essence of Bafana Bafana’s victorious representation of a South Africa we all want. A South Africa characterised by an ethos of equal opportunities where boys from previously disadvantaged backgrounds can go onto a world stage and successfully compete against anyone.
The majestic victory over South Korea was historic in that it underscored the very first time in history that our nation has qualified for the knockout stages of a Fifa World Cup. This is a feat we could not even master on our home ground when we became Africa’s first and only nation to ever host a Fifa World Cup back in 2010.
Indeed, where there’s will, there’s a way. The Bafana Bafana spirit that vanquished South Korea persists and remains in large doses to further conquer the world. Next in line, Canada awaits. We are fearless in facing Canada, one of the three co-hosts along with Mexico and the USA.
We’ve come a long way already. We can’t look in the mirror with any iota of doubt in our abilities. As Bafana Bafana goal-minder and captain Ronwen Williams emotionally pointed out in a post-match interview: We won despite the doubters. I may as well add: We won despite the haters.
This is the South African spirit of resilience, of determination and sheer unadulterated desire. We are a special people of the South, of Azania. We come from the lineage of great warriors — Hintsa, Shaka, Sekhukhune, Moshoeshoe, et al.
We’ve overcome too much thus far. Our differences turned into what the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu termed a Rainbow Nation, united in its diversity.
All of us, therefore, deserve to bask in the glory of Bafana Bafana’s escapes in faraway lands of the people with Coca-Cola and hamburger societal backgrounds. Let us continue to show them the impact of ”pap ’n vleis” in our genetical make-up, the people of the braai culture.
We are absolutely on-point to be collectively ecstatic. This is our nation, our country. Bafana Bafana are us, and we are them. We shall support the team, behold and cherish it, in good and bad times. And boy, oh, what a wonderful moment under the sun we are enjoying, and that’s an understatement.
When our boys return from the World Cup with more feathers on their caps, the nation should remember what we do best: welcome our boys as the legends and heroes that they are. I know our thoughtful president too well to anticipate that he will seize the opportunity to host the team for a special occasion at the Union Buildings or his private residence at Mahlambandlopfu.
For once, the media houses in our nation need to catapult Bafana Bafana to the top of the news. As I indicated earlier, we can do with some common public good that brings our people together. We ought to leap for joy in unison, yet fully aware that this is only for a moment, for the here-and-now; the vicissitudes of life still await. Yet let nothing daunt us. We are South Africans!
* Abbey Makoe is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Global South Media Network. Views expressed are personal.
** The views expressed here do not reflect those of the Sunday Independent, Independent Media, or IOL.