15 years since the introduction of the ‘New South Africa’ and we ask ourselves… are we still a nation of racist bastards or have we reformed?

We all know that on the roads people are still racist and hate the Taxi Drivers with a passion, mind you so do some of the African road users. The specific focus area that I will discuss today is sport.

When Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected president of the country he made it his mission to transform our jaded global image. Realising the potential power that sports has he tasked the late Steve Tshwete with the mission to clean up our sporting act.

And Tshwete did pretty well. Chester Williams became the first player of colour to win the Rugby World Cup with South Africa in 1995, and since then we have had a regular stream of decent players of colour playing for the boks He did pretty well in cricket as well with the discovery of Makhaya Ntini who paved the way for many other players of colour to grace the Protea stage.

So it was very much mission accomplished for the late sports minister. However, events over time suggest that he never completely go rid of the scourge of racism and recent events will really make the man turn in his grave.

Celebrations surrounding the Springboks win over the All Blacks on the weekend was a bit jaded after reports over a racist attack at the Wanderers Rugby Club surfaced. The Wanderers first team was hosting the Eldoronians Rugby Club first team from Eldorado Park, a predominantly coloured area. The captain of the Eldoronians first team was talking to the ref about an alleged bad tackle made on one of his players. The captain of Wanderers came out and said ‘leave the ref alone’, the Eldos captain said ‘f*** off this is not your business’. He woke up 4 hours later in a hospital with a gash on his head that needed 13 stitches, two front teeth that were missing and a severe case of concussion. Apparently as he turned around to go back to his team the Wanderers captain hit him with a shot that would make Mike Tyson proud. The game then turned into a free-for-all and the ref had to abandon the match.

Now Im not saying that the captain from Wanderers should have done what he did, but the boys from Eldos are definitely no saints! In my RAU playing days we played a game at Eldos and the touch judge made a debateable call on a Eldos player. All you heard was a fan from the stands saying: ‘his ma sé p*%s…this is sommer kak!’ He picked up a quart bottle, ran up to the touch judge and bottled him over the head.

Last year, at a game between South Africa and Australia at Ellis Park the crowd verbally abused a black South African fan. There was a huge public outcry when the said fan told all to the press and an official investigation was launched and a headhunt for the abusive fan insued. It even resulted in a bounty being placed on the head of the fan who hurled the abuse.

Another big issue on Tshwete’s agenda was to increase the number of coloured players in representative sport. This was to be achieved through the implementation of the quota system whereby the national cricket and rugby team had to have a minimum number of coloured players on the field at any one time.

The system was implemented and somewhat begrudgingly accepted by the cricket and rugby loving public… that’s until Bafoona Bafoona refused to implement their own quota system. And you see the grounds for a solid argument here. Surely what’s good for the goose is good for the gander? How different is Bafoona Bafoona now then the racist cricket and rugby teams of old?

Its one of those issues that will plague our country for years to come. The quota system was dropped a few months ago because it was said that it is degrading to players of colour to be labeled a quota player because it seems as if they are there because of the colour of their skin rather then for their skill. There was talk a few months ago to re-institute the system but these calls were rubbished by the relevant unions because of the skin colour above skills issue.