What does it take to assemble a crack team of winners? Springbok coaches Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber know, but that’s only for rugby. What about the entire country?
For a start, South Africa could do what rugby did when it threw out its ancient conventions, put its faith in people of proven ability and looked beyond the narrow confines of traditions that had been recognised for what they were: bigoted and harmful.
Springbok teams are now no longer chosen by a bunch of blazered old men, mostly white, consumed by nostalgia for a lost past. Selections also don’t involve the horse-trading that once denied obviously talented players the opportunity to wear the green and gold. Best of all, the prejudice of a previous era has been cast aside — never more so than when Erasmus made his inspirational choice of appointing Siya Kolisi to lead the team.
It’s an example that could be copied by other institutions — especially the governing party. The ANC, weighed down by narrow self-interest and decrepit comrades, could do with some of that Erasmus inspiration and kick those members and outdated ideologies into touch.
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