By Jonathan Jackson
In one symbolic move in 1995, elected President Nelson Mandela came out in support of the Springboks and united a divided nation. It was one moment when history and sport merged and put Mandela’s moral authority, integrity, compassion and commitment to reconciliation on global display. It is these attributes that has made him the icon he is today writes Jonathan Jackson.
Sport is a uniting force, a great dividing range, a mixture of joy, passion, fury and volatility. In the United Kingdom, supporters of football teams endure their own form of apartheid as League grounds are segregated between rival supporters. In South America men have been known to be killed in anger or celebration depending on their teams’ fates. In South Africa, passionate rugby supporters had no international team to support as the Springboks felt the full force of the Commonwealth enacted Gleneagles agreement in 1977, which prohibited rival countries from engaging in any sporting contact with the excluded nation.
The Gleneagles agreement was formulated following one of South Africa’s bleakest moments, the Soweto riots in 1976. In response, 28 countries boycotted the Summer Olympics.
At the time of the riots and throughout the boycotts, Nelson Mandela sat idly in a South African jail cell, where the future president had hit upon the powerful appeal of rugby to the
Afrikaner. Using the sport as a common interest, he gained favourable treatment from his guards.
Yet, even within the confined spaces of prison – where he spent nearly three decades of his life – he never backed down from his political beliefs, protests and vision. He became a source of inspiration and strength to fellow prisoners and remained a beacon of hope and peace for those outside.
Yet it is the manner in which he used rugby to attempt to unite the ‘Rainbow Nation’, that illustrates how bold and audacious he is and how his leadership has held firm since he first joined the ANYC at the height of WW2.
On Sunday 11 February, 1990 Mandela was released from 27 years of incarceration. Shortly after his release his delegation agreed to suspend their armed struggle.
Recrimination and hate was still rife. Old South Africa was coming to terms with the changes, new South Africa was revelling in a newfound freedom; the walls may have been torn down but the divisions remained.
As the legal apparatus of apartheid was abolished, the Springboks were readmitted to international rugby in 1992.
And Mandela knew he could make a nation building impact.
It took three years for the team to regain momentum, the announcement that South Africa was to host the 1995 World Cup, changed not only the sporting landscape, but the political landscape as well.
During this period, Mandela was moving behind the scenes to win black South African support for the Springbok jersey, one of their most hated symbols of apartheid. Rugby was the sport of the oppressor and at any home game this crowd could be found supporting the rival team. Mandela spent an entire year eroding the hatred, convincing the black population that the new Springbok slogan, ‘One team, one country’ was reality, not myth.
Mandela was working on two fronts. Within days of his inauguration as president in 1994 he sent for François Pienaar, the Springboks’ captain.
Mandela describing Pienaar said: “You looked at him, you considered where he came from and what you saw was a typical Afrikaner.”
Yet Mandela is known for not judging the book by its cover: “He did not seem to me at all to be the typical product of an apartheid society,” Mandela said. “I found him quite a charming fellow and I sensed that he was progressive. And, you know, he was an educated chap. He had a BA in law. It was a pleasure to sit down with him.”
Pienaar grew up in a working class family in Vereeniging, a town in part held responsible for the deaths of 69 gunfire fleeing black demonstrators from the neighbouring shanty of Sharpeville.
Pienaar was nervous upon meeting Mandela for the first time and not for good reason.
“We were a typical, not very politically aware working-class Afrikaner family who never spoke about politics and believed 100% in the propaganda of the day.”
Five minutes into the meeting Pienaar relaxed.
“It’s more than just being comfortable in his presence,” Pienaar recalled. “You have a feeling when you are with him that you are safe.”
Winning Pienaar over and thus the entire Springbok team was mission accomplished for Mandela.
“He talked about the power that sport had to move people and how he had seen this not long after his release in the Barcelona Olympics, which he especially remembered for one particular moment when he said he stood up and he felt the whole stadium reverberating,” said Pienaar.
In a stadium of 63,000 people at the Rugby World Cup, where all bar 1,000 were white Afrikaans, Mandela would have given his bodyguards palpitations. Yet he stood up as President before the match in his Springbok jersey and was cheered by the very people who would have ignored him in the polls a year earlier and called him a dangerous terrorist in years gone by.
Indeed, he has been referred to by Mandela: The Authorized Biography author Anthony Sampson as being an impulsive activist with a quick temper.
Mandela does not disagree with this assessment saying on his foundation website that: “One was angry at what was happening – the humiliation, the loss of our human dignity. We tended to react in accordance with anger and our emotion rather than sitting down and thinking about things properly.
“But in jail – especially those who stayed in single cells – you had enough opportunity to sit down and think. And you were in contact with a lot of people with a high education and who were widely travelled. When they told of their experiences, you felt humbled.”
What changed in Mandela was not the quality of his leadership or presence, but the way in which he led. Upon leaving prison he had transformed into a man who knew his mind and feelings. He says that one of the most powerful forces of change was thinking about how he had behaved and reacted to generosity and compassion expressed
toward him in the past.
“One of the most difficult things is not to change society – but to change yourself.”
Thus, as a changed man, and as President of South Africa Mandela set out to transform the nation through compassion, which brought understanding to those wronged by injustice as well as those accused of perpetrating the injustice. And that understanding culminated in a game of football.
It was the fairytale tournament for South Africa. The All Blacks (New Zealand internationals) were the most feared team in the world, unconquerable, revered. But just as Mandela had achieved the impossible in uniting a nation, the Springboks repaid the favour.
It was a shrewd but politically triumphant move. Mandela had completed the same charm offensive which he had executed with consummate skill for more than a decade, handing the trophy to Pienaar saying, “Thank you very much for what you have done for our country.”
“Mr President,” replied Pienaar, “it is nothing compared to what you have done for our country.”
Such was the achievement of the man, the team and the nation, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was moved to comment, ‘Quite unbelievable, quite incredible, what happened. It had the effect of just ... turning around the country. It was an incredible transformation. An extraordinary thing. It said, yes, it is actually possible for us to become one nation.”
Mandela’s legacy while not complete changed national and global perception and proved that the fight for respect and inclusion can be achieved through peaceful means.
