Mthethwa is unfit for the job

Over the years, the department of sport, arts and culture has attracted a mixture of clowns, comedians, buffoons and halfwits – not a sportsperson, artist or culture vulture among them.

They are placed in this portfolio not for knowledge and experience, but simply because they’d be useless in, let’s say, the more serious posts. This then presupposes the government considers sport of minor importance and can be handled with ease – even by nincompoops.

This is indicative of how out of touch our leaders are and, unlike a sportsperson, totally unfit both mentally and physically. They don’t know what it means to exercise mind and body. Okay, our president does a lot of walking, so he’s halfway becoming a strong, intelligent and purposeful leader.

But any sportsperson will tell you that the halfway mark isn’t good enough and takes much more to get over the line. This attitude by politicos to sport is surprising, especially in the light that South Africa as a whole thrives on it. In fact, we have been branded “sports mad”.

Stadiums are packed with all hues to see our players take on international teams. What about our winning the Rugby World Cup? Even the president was there to wish our boys well. He must’ve felt the thrill and unifying emotion only sport can offer; also realising what the occasion meant to his country? Other sport has the same positive effect. And yet he appoints a person like Nathi Mthethwa, who has done nothing but interfere and blow the smouldering embers of spoilsports insisting on playing the race card. The man is doing sport a disservice and should be shafted.

What beats me is the silence of the sponsors. They pour millions into sport (without which sport can’t survive), and yet they turn a blind eye to the way their sportspeople are being treated by man who’s nothing but a square peg. Why are they not in the forefront of those insisting that sport be kept out of politics?

Why are they not backing those managers and coaches who have one single aim: winning? Sponsors have the power to change the status quo by telling the government “back down or we pull out”.

Cliff Buchler.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.