COLUMN | Bafana Bafana: Why do South Africans have so much allegiance to mediocrity?

I can’t explain to you how much I love South Africa.

Great weather, incredible wildlife and nature, decent enough people and a tenacious spirit whether it be in front of the camera, on stage or in the recording booth.

There are a few things that make it hard to be proudly South African.

I mean the racism around here is top tier not to mention we are ruled by a gang of geriatrics who have done nothing as successfully as their pillaging of resources and funds. You know in your heart of hearts that the African National Congress is not going to be dethroned anytime soon. That’s as confusing to me as the idea of someone being young, Black and Christian. It’s not make sure but hey. . .

Now government is one thing as those people have been failing steadily for three decades but our sporting efforts are now becoming a point of concern especially as it pertains to the boys the boys. We used to be a feared footballing nation. In 1996 we dominated the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) with a team that will not soon be forgotten. We’re talking Doctor Khumalo, Mark Fish, Shaun Bartlett, John Moshoeu . . . the list of talents that team housed is endless. We also qualified and did fairly well at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, but we have since followed this up with not being able to qualify for the AFCON or World Cup until such a time when they allowed us to host the latter. At which point we then became the first host nation to bow out at the group stages. Great stat that. 

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This year people really thought the boys the boys would win the AFCON especially after we toppled adversaries such as Morocco. But, naturally, we lost in the semi-finals. I did tell ya’ll that would happen. We happened to snag bronze and now people are talking about how proud they are. I am not. I’m sorry but the South African Footballing Association, the coaching staff, the players I don’t rate any of you.

Where I’m from we don’t do dances and sing songs for placing third. Bronze my nigga . . . third place on a continent where we happen to be one of the better-performing states when it comes to GDP and the like. Third place. They peaked too early at AFCON and had nothing left in the tank when it counted the most. How do you plan on winning when the best player on your team is the keeper, who exactly is doing the scoring and lest we forget, the ball has to go through 10 players before reaching Ronwen Williams.

You boys were too busy focused on our celebrations which is also what happened in 2010. Lovely memorable moments as we dance along the sidelines after scoring a goal only to get booted out of our tournament. When will the concept of development be addressed? I am asking Danny Jordaan and the rest of those relics we rely on to bring us glory.

Do you remember development? It’s when you grow and invest in talent. I’m sure you’re familiar with it, Danny. Rugby and Cricket SA do it quite well. I can watch full rugby games of kids in high school on SuperSport. When I was in Grade 2, Bakers the biscuit brand would have full-day cricket clinics to nurture young talents and ensure those with promise were drafted to a team that would tour the country playing the best teams in that age group. What exactly is the local footballing fraternity doing, super diski? Buying up failed Columbian players and flooding our league with exports to make the PSL more watchable.

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If we aren’t importing talent we are giving our friends and family members opportunities instead of putting talent in a position to win. And you all thought we were going to win. People crying tears after we lost on penalties like they actually believed we could pull off this miracle.

On the continent, our domestic league is ranked sixth best. Yet in the world, we come in at 52.  The highest position Bafana ever reached was 16th in 1996, the same year they lifted the AFCON trophy at home. Their lowest position was 81 in 2017. Since 2016, they have not gone beyond 60th in the world rankings. The team is currently ranked 61^st in the world . . . I mean what is that?

Football is a language that is spoken fluently throughout the world and in many dialects. We no speaky too good. This team is like a microcosm for South Africa, once really promising but now just a washed-up endeavour.

People believed that all those Sundowns Football Club players would make a difference. Sundowns is the highest-ranking football club on both the continent and in the country but again, it comes in at 62 in the world. That’s what you thought was going to win.

People proudly state that out of the 26 squad players for the boys the boys, 23 play their football here at home and honestly that is not saying much.

The sport of rugby received more investment, increasing from R280m to R347m. Amateur cricket saw a decrease in funding, from R236 million in 2022 to R196 million. Professional cricket also had less expenditure, dropping from R539 million to R498 million in the last financial year.

And football you might wonder, well, to host the 2010 World Cup we spent around 2.4 billion pounds and that was just in that period and yet we’re still garbage. For this third place finish these boys will reportedly receive R1 million a piece. 

I say hang it up, fire everyone and stop asking me to come out and watch these clowns play teams like Mali and draw. Get us some real competition to square up against and for God’s sake let’s start nurturing coaching talents, educate referees and polish players from the grassroots. The best and brightest are usually not well placed to come to Joburg for some fancy tryouts where only people who are connected get selected. Do better because this is just pathetic. Nobody remembers third place; they only pity them.