Twenty-seven years after apartheid ended, nearly 10,000 schools in South Africa still have no sports facilities. According to 2018 government statistics, 20,000 of the 23,400 public schools do not have a laboratory. Yet, matrics are expected to pass physical sciences in preparation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
South Africa sent its biggest team yet to the Olympic Games in Japan, but returned with only three medals. Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa places the blame for the poor performance on transformation. Two questions immediately arise: did he not know beforehand that certain teams are not transformed? And would he have remained quiet if there had been more medals?
Deterioration in South African sports is not a recent development. More recently, Covid-19 has forced school sport to a halt, but quite frankly it has been deteriorating for a while now — and the government has a huge share in that.
The success of the Springboks creates a false impression about the actual state of sport in our country. South Africa simply does not have an Olympic culture. Truth be told, we never had it. We are simply too obsessed with rugby and soccer, and to a lesser extent with…
