CAN FOOTBALL 'SAVE' SOUTH AFRICA?

WORLD CUP STARTS FRIDAY -- KICK-OFF CONCERT TOMORROW

Can football transform a nation?

Danny Jordaan, CEO of South Africa’s World Cup Organizing Committee says yes. “You’re talking about the transformation of a country and a society,” the former teacher and anti-apartheid activist told Sports Illustrated.

He is not alone in hoping that the first World Cup ever held in Africa can bring his country together. After earlier criticism that preparations were costing too much and not benefiting ordinary citizens, even skeptical journalists have stepped on the bandwagon. A friend made on my recent trip to South Africa writes: “It's a good thing for us, this nationalism around soccer. Not war or race or tribalism."

The movie Invictus demonstrated former President Nelson Mandela’s genius in encouraging all South Africans to unify behind the Springboks, the historically whites-only rugby team. Still, 15 years later, it’s mostly poor people of color who kick around soccer balls or makeshift versions while whites play cricket and rugby. Having a sense of national purpose that transcends racial fault lines can create pride and momentum. South Africa’s remarkable democracy could use a shot of adrenaline and there’s a reasonable chance football (soccer to us in the U.S.) can provide it.

The South African team is called Bafana Bafana (boys, boys in Zulu.) Onlookers often wonder why fans seemingly boo 6-foot-6 defender Matthew Booth. Soccer was not an option at Booth’s all-white school in Fish Hoek, but his father introduced him to it at a local amateur club. “It was a cultural and racial melting pot,” Booth told Sports Illustrated. “I was assimilated from a young age, which I’m very grateful for.” Booth stands out not only for his skills and height, but because he’s the only white on the team. The “boos” are people chanting his last name. The confusion amuses his wife, a statuesque model named Sonia, who grew up in Soweto, the black township famous for its anti-apartheid strategy sessions, protests and police actions. The Booth family, including two sons, represents the Rainbow Nation ideal of the peaceful transformation.

The Booth marriage would have been illegal under the strict racial segregation of apartheid. So would that of Albie Sachs and Vanessa September. The South African constitution, which Sachs helped write, is progressive. It specifies: “The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, color, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.”

For many outside the country, the rose-colored glasses acquired after the transition to democracy are still on. Thus I was shocked by the incendiary remarks of Julius Malema, leader of the African National Conference Youth League, who has interfered with the delicate diplomacy between South Africa and Zimbabwe, incited anti-white violence by singing a song that literally translates into “Kill the Boers” (farmers) and generally thrown his weight around. Where, I wondered, are today’s leaders of the caliber of Mandela or Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu?

April 27 is Freedom Day, a national holiday in South Africa. In his autobiography, Mandela remembers voting on that day in 1994, the first elections in which the majority of residents had been allowed to participate: “I marked an X in the box next to the letters ANC and then slipped my folded ballot paper into a simple wooden box; I had cast the first vote of my life.”

The world watched with awe at the black leaders’ magnanimity, the progress of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Yet scars of apartheid run deep. Some are obvious. Sachs is missing the vision in one eye and most of his right arm because of a bomb intended to kill him. Others are subtle. Barbara Hogan is Minister of Public Enterprises. Before that, she was Health Minister, bringing sanity to the nation’s HIV-AIDS policies after former President Thabo Mbeki’s era of denial and herbal remedies. Hogan has been a member of the ANC since 1976, the year of the Soweto Uprising. She became the first white woman convicted of high treason, sentenced to 10 years in prison, and tortured to the point where she attempted suicide. Today, she is charged with expanding the nation’s energy resources.

Mary Metcalfe is Director General of Higher Education and Training, responsible for alleviating the 40 percent unemployment rate among people 18-25, most of them black. In order to attend university, students must achieve good scores on the capstone high school examination. But many drop out long before this point. Metcalfe’s priority is strengthening short-term programs so students can learn skills in demand, such as hospitality jobs. South Africans are counting on the exposure of the World Cup to boost tourism. Of course, tourists are discouraged by high crime, fueled by that huge cohort of the unemployed.

Zwelahke Sisulu, a crusading journalist during apartheid, is now a successful businessman. Reflecting on leadership, he noted that his late father Walter, co-founder of the ANC Youth League, and Mandela were products of missionary schools, brought up with a strong moral code which sustained them during their long imprisonment. Zwelahke credits his mother Albertina with holding many families together while parents were jailed, banned and exiled. “Our home was really a community center,” he recalls. [He grew up across from a Soweto clinic where his nurse-midwife mother helped deliver babies.] People would leave clothes to help out, so he found himself as a boy literally in the “big shoes and big suits” of struggle leaders. With the clothes came stories: "This was so-and-so’s who was sentenced…” Life was hard, but inspiring. "It was not just the sense of the extended African family, but the extended ANC family."

Perhaps rooting for Bafana can recreate that sense of family, uniting a country with 11 official languages. I saw improved roads, infrastructure, mass transit and sports facilities. My correspondents report that flags are flying from most cars, windows and poles, and that much of the population is sporting green and yellow shirts and scarves. South Africans are hoping Bafana, which qualified only because South Africa is the host nation, will truly be the Cinderella team. But the real sparks will come from Mandela and the excitement of the global spotlight. Madiba (his clan and familiar name) met Bafana at his home last week and said he’ll be at the opening match against Mexico on Friday. If South Africa can pull off the month-long World Cup with no major snafus or criminal incidents, there will be more employment opportunities. The energy generated by an optimistic spirit and sunny disposition, exemplified by the savvy Mandela, who turns 92 on July 18 (also his wedding anniversary and a United Nations day in his honor), seldom hurt any one or any country.

For the historic significance of June 11 and July 11 to Nelson Mandela, Ahmed Kathrada and Walter Sisulu, among others, go here to learn about the Rivonia Trial and the life sentences these men received:
http://www.southafrica.info/about/history/mandela-090610.htm