Word: springboks
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...been just a few weeks since South Africa's Springbok team tore through the Rugby World Cup tournament unbeaten and flew home as champions to their enthralled countrymen. But in politics - including South Africa's entangled racial politics - a few weeks is a very long time...
Rugby as Social Scrum South African rugby continues to be a predominantly white game, from a player and spectator perspective [Sept.24], but more and more blacks are becoming regular club and provincial players, and on a national level they are proudly supported by the white Springbok fans and spectators. No one in the government tells South African football to field some whites, Asians or other nonblacks, so why should rugby be singled out? Richard Spencer-Cheetham, CAPE TOWN
...years, the national rugby system was tightly interwoven with the institutions of apartheid; its players and administrators were nurtured in the same educational establishments from which the regime recruited its leaders. The Afrikaner Broederbond (Brotherhood), a secretive power élite that ran the country's key institutions, helped choose Springbok rugby captains just as they chose military commanders and Prime Ministers. "Rugby was always seen as apartheid at play," says Andy Colquhoun, a leading South African rugby commentator. Even now, he adds, "it is a crucial part of the white psyche...
...racial makeup of the current Springbok squad sparked weeks of anguish among politicians back home, concerned about the image it projects to the world, but divided over how to address the problem. Despite the government's upbeat post-apartheid "rainbow nation" theme, official statistics underscore the persistence of harsh inequalities: last year more than 60% of black South Africans scraped by on less than $100 a month, up from 50% in 1996. By contrast, only 4% of whites earn that little. "At the very top there is a lot of integration," says Frans Cronjé, head of development...
...sure, rugby has never been the first-choice game among the black majority. "You can tell a mostly white high school when you drive by its rugby field," Cronjé says. "Black schools have soccer fields." Nonetheless, government officials have pushed for years to get more blacks on the Springbok team. Rugby clubs say there is little black talent to recruit for world-class tournaments - a reflection, in part, of the fact that few black students can afford to attend the élite high schools that groom most of the country's rugby stars. Springbok manager Yeye faults the white...