Rainbow plaster: From sport triumph to nation-building?

South Africa’s 2024 sports triumphs, from the Springboks’ Rugby Championship win to Olympic and UFC glory, highlight the nation’s ongoing debate on sport’s role in unity and nation-building.

South Africa entered 2024 still riding the high of our national treasures, the Springboks clinching their fourth Rugby World Cup championship in October 2023.

The jubilation from the Springbok’s win transferred to professional mixed martial artist Dricus du Plessis, who became South Africa’s first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion in January.

SA’s 2024 sports victories

During the globe’s biggest sporting event, the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, South Africa won six medals (one gold, three silver, and two bronze) and achieved a 44th overall place in the standings.

27-year-old Tatjana Smith swam away from the games in July as a two-time Olympic champion and the most decorated South African Olympian in history.

In cricket, both the Proteas and Proteas Women walked away with the runner-up position for the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup and 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup, respectively. 

The winning streak for South Africa’s rugby team (Amabhokobhoko) did end with the Rugby World Cup as the Boks went on to win the 2024 Rugby Championship in September for the first time since 2019.

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South Africa’s sporting achievements were greatly celebrated among South Africans, but in the context of South Africa’s divided history, a lingering question comes up often in conversation: Can sporting achievements help with nation-building?

South Africa’s first democratic president, Nelson Mandela, believed so as the icon saw the potential of sport as an instrument for change.

Mandela used the 1995 Rugby World Cup to foster national pride and identity in an apartheid-divided nation.

Sport as an instrument for change

“Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. Sport can awaken hope where there was previously only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers,” Madiba said.

The acting Director General of Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), Nomonde Mnukwa, has an optimistic view on the power of sport in unifying a nation. 

Mnukwa said sport allows us to transcend our cultural, racial, and linguistic differences.

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“It gives us a sense of belonging and is the common unifier when we join together to support our nation. It fosters social cohesion, peace, and development, contributing to creating our vibrant national heritage,” she said.

She added that South Africa’s sporting milestones spark hope, especially within historically disadvantaged communities, to work towards developing their lives and the country’s national heritage.

“Let us keep our national heritage alive by supporting our sports teams and participating in sporting or cultural activities that continue to unite and transform our nation,” Mnukwa said on celebrating sport in heritage.

Value in nation-building limited

University of South Africa (UNISA) professor Pieter Labuschagne wrote in a 2004 paper titled The role of sport in post-apartheid South Africa – Nation-building or nationalisation? that the value of sport in nation-building is limited in scope. 

“With the advantage of hindsight, it is obvious that the magic colours of the Rainbow Nation in sport faded soon after the jubilation of ‘togetherness’ brought about by the famous Springbok victory,” Labuschagne said in relation to the 1995 victory.

“This undoubtedly reinforces the existing notion that the value of sport to create a national identity is a temporary phenomenon: nothing more than a ‘ninety-minute patriotism’.”

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More recently, the director of the Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy (CANRAD) at the Nelson Mandela University, Professor Bheki Mngomezulu, said sport and politics are directly linked because of South Africa’s history.

Mngomezulu penned that while South African athletes continue to contribute toward nation-building and social cohesion, such unity is not sustained.

“It is true that sport has the power to unite the nation; such unity must be sustained; otherwise, it is short-lived,” he wrote after the Springbok’s 2023 victory.

‘Unity must be sustained’

Mngomezulu added that South Africans should not be complacent.

“There is more work that needs to be done to unite our people. The current momentum must be kept, and all of us must pull together to render both racial and political divisions obsolete,” he said.