Monday, October 09, 2006

OPEN LETTER UNPUBLISHE

Unpublished Letter to the Editor

ANALYSIS

IT IS NOT "LUYT" TO UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF SOUTH

AFRICAN SPORT IN CONTEXT

LEARNING FROM THE PAST TO CORRECT THE FUTURE

Over the last few years or so South African sport have been primarily
dominated by the process of transformation and democratisation. Sport in
South Africa has become a rather ambiguous term, having different
meanings to various people. Its ambiguity is attested to by the range of
topics treated in our daily newspapers. Here one can find articles on
competition, the state of organised sports, including such matters as
development, recruitment, financial success and failure, sport fashions,
commissions, results, scandal and not forgetting our head of state as a
witness in court!.

The broad yet loose encompass of sport reflected in the mass media
suggests that sport can and perhaps should be dealt with on different
planes of discourse if a better understanding of its nature is to be
acquired. Non-racial sports administrators have consistently argued that
sport, like other institutions, both creates and is created by the matrix of
material and ideational influences specific to any particular period in
history. Most significant among these issues, perhaps, is the nature of
sports long-standing ties to the class structure and of sports significance
in the maintenance of political order.

Sports provide an arena of political socialisation in which system-

stabilising liberal values are reinforced. This strong liberal ideological
bias is not simply the product of blind, deterministic, historical forces but
is, rather the result of intervention by dominant classes in our apartheid
past. I argue that individuals who occupy and have occupied positions of
power within the formal organisational structure of apartheid sport and
other related institutions have used sport to protect their vested interest
in the maintenance of an institutional framework which guarantees their
privileges.
Our recent past clearly shows that not all groups and individuals in our
society participated in sport to the same extent. These variations in
involvement was attributed to the legacy of institutionalised practices of
discrimination through race, quota systems, private clubs, gender,
facilities, financial barriers etc. However, conventional restrictions are
subtler and harder to combat, for they consist of normative statements or
beliefs about how things should be. Therefore, it is imperative that sport
should act as a catalyst of bringing people together for a common
purpose and to display a sense of belonging. Thus success in sport is often
attributed to the superior ability of one group to mobilise its resources
into action, and this in turn is often claimed to be the result of a better
political and ideological system.

The persuasiveness of this explanation is increased by merely observing

the rates of sports participation amongst the various codes. Some codes
are the preserve of a specific grouping. This A Social Category
Membership remind us that discrimination occurs when one group feels
that it is superior in some way and thus deserves jurisdiction over
important aspects of social life. This includes control over the
distribution of opportunities, such as who shall have access to sporting
facilities etc. Thus the exclusion of certain social categories from access
to opportunities and facilities can be understood, though somewhat
simplistically, as a function of the A dominant@ group who control sport.
Since we are chiefly concerned that this social pattern is not repeated for
future generations our focus should be to correct this imbalance.
To promote alternate opportunities, sport can be used as a symbol to
unify our people, to create a common culture for sport and a new
patriotism; or to be politically correct An African Renaissance

The majority of South Africans are still coming to terms with our dark
past; this shift is going to take some time. Our new beginning has
culminated in the passing of our constitution which is already in effect.
The sporting family and community should take the lead in demonstrating
that sport is an important social phenomena in our new found democracy.

When speaking of sport as a social institution, we refer to the A Sport

Order. The sport order is composed of all organisations in society
including business which organise, facilitate, and regulate human actions
in sport situations. Sport and Games are world-building activities. Also
few would deny that some relationship exists between sport and politics.
When our President donned the number six jersey during the Rugby World
Cup, it was an effective means of demonstrating the support of the
nation. But when sport is understood as a system capable of carrying
messages, it can be understood as a symbolic system capable of carrying
ideological statements as well.

The new South Africa in this transformatory period needs this type of
nation building achievement in sport which can serve as a rallying point
for a community or disadvantaged nation: a symbol of their emerging
national identity and pride. Sport can be used to these political ends
precisely because of its symbol carrying nature.
Participation in sport requires the outlay of resources, such as time
money and effort, which are in relatively limited supply to each
individual. Sport in South Africa does play an important role and the
nature of our modern society requires some legitimation for the
expenditure of such scarce resources. Probably the most common
legitimation of sport is that sport is an agency of socialisation and thus
serves an important purpose in the social system by instilling the spirit of
integration, togetherness and happiness, especially a country like ours.

Through this process and the purpose of the game the individual learns
system goals, roles, values, attitudes, and comes to share common
expectations about them with others in the social system. The process is
complete when the values, roles, and the like are internalised by the
individual and become unconscious determinants of his or her behaviour.
Much of this activity which takes place within this process has to do with
the socially appropriate values, attitudes, behaviours and a sense of
belonging.

Without parental, school officials, administrators, business and coaches

support the potential sportsperson might never have the opportunity to
learn certain team sport, group values or reach his or her full potential.
The very co-operation of the family, the club and school in presenting
opportunities for sport involvement to children indicates a positive
assessment by those groups of the value of sport. Much evidence can be
presented to support the contention that sport is endorsed by some
systems because it is perceived as an agency of socialisation through a
common purpose.

The emphasis here has been on how sport is communicated in the course
of on-going basis and interaction. Rather than assuming that deviation
from these core concepts, it can be suggested that the attribution of
motivations which express these attitudes is promoted from a very early
stage so that it becomes part of a moral obligation to protect and
preserve this asset.

Events in the near future will reveal whether a truly representative South
African team will participate in the ultimate showcase of international
sport the Olympic Games which is the preserved symbol for peaceful
international competition which also displays national and cultural
identity. The emerging of the individual in the group is not confined to
the athlete himself but to some extent to the advancement and the
growth of the sport and nation itself. Success in sport is important and it
is to their credit that a community with a history of racial discrimination
the racial complexion of the performer is not allowed to prevent his or
her rise to the top in sport. Therefore it is of significance that if South
Africa has to enter the next millennium it has to shed its past and foster
in protecting and preserving not only sport itself but what values and
attitudes we have created and structured for a new South Africa.

As a sports enthusiast I feel humiliated and disgusted that our President

was called as a witness to court. For the survival of rugby, its players and
spectators it’s time we have a new change in leadership who can steer
this wonderful sport out of this quagmire.

RISHI HANSRAJH

# posted by Open Letter Unpublished @ 5:40 AM