BAFANA BAFANA A VICTORY FOR DEMOGRAPHICS?

South Africa’s footballers bowed out of AFCON with their heads held high. A penalty-shootout defeat to Nigeria ended their dream of winning the tournament for only a second time. But away from the pitch, their performance has ignited a debate on the transformation of sport in the post-apartheid era.

South Africa's national football team almost reflects the country’s demographics. Ok, every player in the starting eleven on Wednesday night was Black. But that means they only needed one White player to be representative of a country where Blacks make up around 90 per cent of the population.

Compare that to the nation’s Rugby team, the Springboks. During their World Cup triumph last year, half the squad was White. An improvement on previous years but for many still not good enough. After all, it’s nearly thirty years since the end of apartheid when Blacks were banned from playing rugby and the national side refused to compete against teams that fielded non-Whites.

It’s a point that wasn’t lost on Mbuyiseni Ndlozi , a politician and senior member of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party. When South Africa’s rugby stars won the World Cup for a third time in 2019, he made this fiery speech.

Progress has been made since then, but his point is still relevant. Today, laws may not prevent players of colour from donning the green and gold jersey, but social-economic barriers do.

Until the rugby team looks like football team, can we really say sport has won the post-apartheid battle?