Nelson Mandela: South Africa Salutes Its Hero

Mandela Embraced Sport To Heal

Updated: 1:02am UK, Saturday 07 December 2013

By Paul Kelso, Sports Correspondent

Of the many remarkable images of Nelson Mandela's remarkable life, few speak as powerfully as the moment South Africa's new president handed the 1995 Rugby World Cup to Francois Pienaar in Johannesburg.

In front of an overwhelmingly white crowd at Ellis Park, the man once regarded as an enemy of the state emerged wearing a Springbok shirt bearing Pienaar's No 6 on the back.

Entirely won over, the crowd chanted his name, and two hours later watched as the two No 6s, one black, one white, but both South African, celebrated a moment of shared sporting triumph.

It was a moment of brilliant political judgement and deep symbolic power.

Mr Mandela had only been president for a year and extreme right-wing elements were attempting to destabilise his government.

At a stroke he had provided a rallying point for a fledgling nation.

"It is hard to put into words what it meant," said Pienaar.

"Everyone knows about our embarrassing past and he comes out and asks the rest of the country to support us.

"I never thought he would wear a Springbok jersey. That meant so much for the white South Africa. He comes out and carries the Springbok on his chest. I think it was a rallying call for the country, that this was a team that played for us all."

Sport is a persistent theme of South Africa's journey from apartheid to emancipation. First, as a lightning rod for the global anti-apartheid movement, and then at Mr Mandela's behest used as a means of healing the nation's deep divisions.

In the dark days of apartheid the old Imperial games of cricket and rugby were central to white South African identity.

Lucas Radebe, the former South African football captain, told Sky News the black majority played soccer in isolation, associating the other games with the regime.

"We looked at cricket as the sport of the minority, we didn't want to have anything to do with cricket or rugby. Everything was just apartheid," he said.

"Our parents still bear the scars, but it got better and there is a lot of history."

Whatever the game, black and white South Africans were barred from playing together. And when it came to sending national teams to play abroad, only whites were considered for selection.

The African National Congress, operating in exile, recognised the symbolic power of this and campaigned for a global boycott of teams selected on racist lines.

The sporting boycott was perhaps the most effective of all sanctions, hitting white identity hard and bringing the iniquities of the apartheid regime to the attention of a global audience.

Mr Mandela and Desmond Tutu both acknowledged the role played by sport in raising awareness, but winning the support of sport was not straightforward.

In Europe and within cricket and rugby there was resistance to a boycott, with many spouting the canard that sport and politics should not mix.

Exclusion from the Olympic Games was a powerful symbol of global revulsion, but it took concerted action from Asian and African countries to overcome European resistance within the International Olympic Committee.

British rugby was only jolted from its complacency by nationwide protests against South African tourists, and cricket finally joined the anti-apartheid consensus after one of the most controversial and divisive incidents in all sport, the Basil D'Oliveira affair.

D'Oliveira was, in the parlance of apartheid South Africa, a "Cape Coloured" who, denied a chance to play international cricket left South Africa and qualified to play for England.

In 1968 he appeared certain to be selected for the tour of South Africa, a decision that was likely to lead to the cancellation of England's visit by the South African government.

But following a secret lobbying campaign orchestrated from Pretoria, D'Oliveira was omitted from the MCC touring party for the winter tour of his homeland.

It prompted outrage and protests and, a month later, following an injury to a player selected ahead of him, he was added to the touring party.

The South African government responded with contempt, cancelling the tour and describing the MCC squad as "the team of the anti-apartheid movement".

The affair exposed the deep racism of South African society, and cast the sport into a wilderness in which it remained until Mr Mandela was released.

Attempts to break the boycott served to highlight the anti-apartheid cause, particularly rebel cricket tours culminating in a party led by former England captain Mike Gatting in 1989.

Gatting, who will become MCC President in October, found himself at the centre of the final convulsion of apartheid, and saw his mercenary expedition cancelled as Mr Mandela was finally released.

Football attracted less attention but there were notable boycott breakers, including Bobby Moore, Geoff Hirst and Alan Ball of England's 1966 World Cup winning side, who all played in South Africa under apartheid.

Having been a tool in the struggle, sport became a symbol of change once Mr Mandela was released.

A South African team competed under the Olympic flag in Barcelona in 1992, and the cricket team played in the West Indies in 1992 with the protea, a flower, replacing the Springbok on their badge.

Mr Mandela astutely used the power of sport to try and heal his nation's deep divisions.

The 1995 Rugby World Cup was the most obvious example but there were others. The 1996 African Cup of Nations, won by the hosts with a team led by the great Lucas Radebe, lifted national esteem further.

Major sporting events were drawn to South African, including the 2003 World Cup and most recently, the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

That brought Mr Mandela's final public appearance as he was driven around Soccer City in a golf buggy, visibly frail but rapturously greeted by a global audience hungry for a piece of the modern-day saint.

Many things matter more than sport as South Africa comes to terms with life after Mr Mandela, but when black and white play together they can take comfort that the simple act is part of his legacy.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602 and Freeview channel 82.

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