“Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play”, pronounced George Orwell in more lugubrious vein than usual. “It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard for all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting.” Help – is that what we South Africans are in for over the next month?
Fortunately, we have the governing African National Congress to provide our foreign visitors with as much cruel spectator sport as any masochistic fan could crave. In fact, the ruling alliance is currently reaching a grand crescendo of comradely hatred, boastfulness and disregard for all rules. This, presumably, has been cleverly timed to coincide with the start of the World Cup so that the rest of us can get on with enjoying the football.
To reduce the ANC spat to very simple terms, or even to a “two sides in a soccer match” allegory, the split can be divided between the nationalists versus the redistributionists. Both sides say they want to redistribute wealth, but the former seem to want to take most of the money for themselves.
This is why critics call them “accumulationists” or “tenderpreneurs”, from the frequency with which ANC “deployees” in high places hand out huge government tenders to wives, relatives and friends. The latest spat of comradely hatred, timed for the opening of the World Cup, came after the head of the trades union confederation, Zwelinzima Vavi, accused some cabinet ministers of living high on the hog, even using the word “corrupt”.
Vavi singled out General Siphiwe Nyanda, the former armed forces chief and now Minister of Communications, a man with a taste for the costly things in life. Nyanda disdained his official residence in Cape Town for months in favour of staying in a five-star hotel, running up an astronomical bill. He is also a director of companies which have benefited from massive government contracts. One of his business partners is the man who probably benefited the most, and most corruptly, from the already corrupt, ruinous arms deal.
State of play so far: the trade unionist has refused to withdraw his remarks. The general threatened to sue, but his first deadline has passed. There has been much hee-hawing about whether the ANC would formally discipline Vavi. His union comrades say this would split the governing alliance.
It won’t. Not yet. But it will one day. There’s no way of reconciling these two factions. The result? Hatred, jealousy, a disregard for all rules. So if you derive sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence, watch our uncomradely comrades: it’s war without the shooting. Otherwise, if squeamish, enjoy the footie. l
Meanwhile, it’s hard to pin down what hosting the World Cup seems to mean to many hugely disadvantaged South Africans. Despite all the gripes – expensive, swanky new stadiums, for example – this event has clearly given people who have been trashed and demeaned all their lives a tremendous sense of pride and excitement. Bread and circuses it may be. But don’t discount the psychological boost this event seems to have given to the country’s most downtrodden citizens.
* * *
Oh dear, I lost my temper last weekend. Again. My goddaughter and I attended a presentation at a college in Cape Town, set up by the advertising industry, where she thought she might like to study graphic design. Much was made about how they wanted to “change their demographics”. This is a polite way of saying that they need to attract more black students.
We were told there were “a few bursaries”. At question time, a white lady accompanying a black student asked: how does one get a bursary? The answer: well, there aren’t any, not at present, as such; if you need help, get a bank loan. But doesn’t the advertising industry provide any bursaries? Er, no. That’s when I blew my top. You can guess what any bank will tell a talented black kid from a township whose mother, say, is a domestic worker. As my goddaughter is black, we come across this hypocrisy all the time.
All institutions mouth “transformation” platitudes these days, but many prefer to remain in their bunkers and be gatekeepers of old privileges. What makes me really mad is the reaction when one points this out: oh god, here he goes, another loon stuck in the past, banging on about boring stuff. My goddaughter tells me that the white adults sitting near us were openly rolling their eyes as I tried to point out the college’s dishonesty. To stay with the sporting metaphor. So many whites who benefited from apartheid now say smugly: we’re all on a level playing field today. The fact is that in that entire audience last Saturday there were only two black people – and they were both totally alienated by that two-faced experience.
So when you read about this sporting gala bringing the nation together, don’t be fooled. Soccer alone ain’t going to change the attitudes of the haves. l
