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Sport: Freedom of choice

Sport: Freedom of choice

14th June 2016

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The first provision of the Constitution provides that South Africa is a democratic state that includes as a value “Human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms”.

Clause 7 in Chapter 2, the Bill of Rights, states that the Bill is a cornerstone of democracy in that it enshrines the rights of all people in our country and affirms their freedom.

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Cambridge Dictionaries Online (CDO) define “freedom” to include the condition or right of being able or allowed to do whatever you want to, without being controlled or limited. CDO includes by way of example: “Everyone should be allowed freedom of choice”.

Gradually, the government has been eroding the right to individual choice either through legislation and programmes that entitles the government to choose on behalf of the individual. Sport provides an example.

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The Minister of Sport, Fikile Mbalula, issued a draconian and mean-spirited proclamation against the main sporting codes for not having achieved their “targets” in transformation. In South Africa “target” no longer means a voluntary measure to strive for. It is now a prescription from the ANC to match the demographics of the population.

This is a just plain dictatorial. Transformation-by-numbers will fail because not all the best will be chosen to perform. Those whose positions are not filled on merit will be the catalyst for failure; not intentionally.

Mbalula doesn’t appear to understand how rare and difficult it is to be a professional sports man or woman. Professionals have to have talent, skill, dedication, propensity for hard work, and mental toughness that is very, very rare. They can’t be imposed on a transformation-by-numbers basis.

Mbalula has also shown how abnormal his view of sport. Let’s take as example the United Kingdom, which invented all our sports anyway (colonial legacy). In the UK by far the biggest sport is soccer. It is the sport of choice in particular for the lower and working classes.

Although cricket is England’s national sport, it is only the second choice. Most school boy cricket is played at what we would call private schools.

Rugby (both union and league) is only watched by about 25% of the country. It is a largely private school sport.
All of the main sports have development programmes. This is to ensure that the best players are nurtured from the largest number of communities as possible.

Ultimately though, for players and for fans, which sport they support is a matter of individual choice. That choice is likely to be influenced most by family and community, not government.

South Africa is the same. Soccer is far and away the most popular sport in South Africa. It is supported by the vast majority of the population. Although rugby and cricket are the second and third most popular sports, they are supported by a far smaller percentage of the population. On the world stage, they have always punched above their weight.

Professionals in these latter two sports are likely to come mostly from private and a few government schools that specialise in producing rugby and cricket players.

Mbalula and the ANC insist that all our sports must be demographically representative. This can’t happen: they are not played in the majority of schools (the government together with the sporting codes are responsible for this). Professional sportsmen are made at primary school level – not at high school level, not at club level, not at provincial level nor at professional level.

But what is most insulting about Mbalula’s dictat is that he disregards individual choice: the freedom of each South African to choose which sport to support.

When Mbalula banned the major codes from hosting international events, he said: “I will, however, issue a Ministerial directive to SAFA as a consequence of their poor drive to penetrate and roll out football in former Model C schools and private schools.” He was satisfied that the South African Football Association had met its targets. What’s not for SAFA to meet?

Experience in the Model C and private schools suggests that where pupil numbers have increasingly become black, children and parents have asked for soccer to be introduced. And it has. In many such schools, soccer is now the pre-eminent winter sport. Rugby is a minor sport, although touch rugby has grown, particularly amongst black pupils.

What has happened is what happens naturally: the composition of the school student body changes, and as an exercise of choice, the sports that are played change. Schools do not need Mbalula to exercise their choices for them.

In suspending the privileges of SA Rugby, Cricket South Africa and Athletics SA from bidding for international tournaments for failing to reach their transformation targets, Mbalula said “I will review this decision when considering the results of the 2016/2017 Transformation Barometer,” he said.

Mbalula owes us a detailed explain as to why targets have not been met and why the time frame of 22 years dictates that everything should have been achieved as he deems it. What are the scientific formulae that are applied to determine our transformation?

Our statistics show that of 24 060 schools, 8 835 have facilities for soccer, 1 393 have facilities for cricket and 929 have facilities for rugby (Institute of Race Relations, South Africa Survey 2016). Obviously some schools may have facilities for all three sports, and more. The largest number of schools, nearly, 10 000 have no sports facilities at all!

World-wide there are an estimated to be 3.3 to 3.5 billion soccer fans (nearly 60%); 2 to 3 billion cricket fans (34% but bear in mind that most of India supports cricket and its population is 1.2 billion) and 390 to 410 million support rugby (7%).
Our sporting codes still face many challenges, but we look suspiciously normal.

Written by Sara Gon, Policy Fellow at the IRR, a think tank that promotes economic and political liberty. Follow the IRR on Twitter @IRR_SouthAfrica.

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