Not in my name . . . no more

“Nobody wants to kill the springbok” blah, blah, blah fish-paste, says the honourable Stofile, the minister of Sport and Recreation, etc. This he says in his capacity as a public official apparently on behalf of us dumb and sometimes deaf voters. Well, dearest honourable Stofile, I hereby recall all previous authority I may have granted you to speak on my behalf.

In case you think I have something against the honourable minister, I do and he is not the only one. In fact I take my axe-grinding right back to Nelson Mandela, Africa’s most loved statesman, prisoner, liberator, etc. Thanks to him this springbok nonsense still lingers, not to mention the fact that I now have to sing die stem right in the middle of my national anthem! I am not going to waste time and bandwidth on the good things Nelson Mandela did, that was the absolute minimum expected of him. It is what he cost black South Africans that matters to me.

Anyway, back to the minister of sport and the antelope.

When the honourable minister met with the rugby boss whose name I’m never sure of but think I know, he did so presumably in my name. Before we get into the meeting let me disclose my leanings to the reader where Oregon Hoskin (the rugby boss) is concerned. I don’t like the guy. No, I don’t hate him, I just don’t like the guy – big difference. My dislike of this gentleman is based on one news-clip. Just one clip, no context, no nothing. In this clip he shouts menacingly threatening at an elderly gentleman who seemed to be questioning one or other decision of the rugby leadership. He came across as a bully and I don’t like bullies. But that is not the point.

When the minister met with the bully, he smilingly told us that throughout the world national sports teams wear the national emblem on the left side of the shirt (of course I paraphrase). It had been previously suggested that the antelope was going to stay but will be moved away from the clutter on the left side of the jersey, to the right side. Remember this we are told by our elected official (yes I voted ANC) that this is an appropriate resolution to the matter. This according to him is what is done everywhere else in the world. I still don’t know why on earth the government of Nelson Mandela decided to cut a deal with rugby on the issue of what is the national emblem. It was probably done for the same reason the national anthem is what it is – compromise.

You can therefore imagine my absolute surprise to discover that the soccer team aka Bafana-Bafana, wears the national emblem on the right hand-side of the jersey. In case there is any doubt:

I know that the picture is small and it is not clear but you do get the point of my shock. I do not wish to give the honourable minister another opportunity to smilingly tell me what the rest of the world does when it comes to football.

I wish to ask the government to cease all negotiations and deal-making on my behalf until further notice. Until such time as there is a decision on what our national colours and emblem are, I would prefer it if the government was to just leave all sporting codes alone to put what they like on the jersey. Until there is an interest in sport as a means of nation building and as a means of getting our people to participate in sport equally and fairly, I propose we let each sporting code to do whatever takes their fancy. All this pretext of transformation and strong words and subsequent apologies just turns my stomach.

No more deals or pontifications in my name, please. Thanks.