Sport is a crucial component of the country’s heritage

As South Africans celebrate Heritage Month, it’s become evident that sport is a crucial and key component of the country’s heritage. Sporting codes such as rugby and sporting heroes occupy a special place in the hearts and minds of ordinary citizens.

South Africa’s sporting success in world rugby, in particular, has in many ways united a divided nation, based on their shared experiences, since the Springboks lifted the Webb Ellis Cup for the first time in 1995.

Nelson Mandela himself features in one of the most iconic images of post-Apartheid South Africa when he embraced former Springbok captain Francios Pienaar after the Boks won the Rugby World Cup on home soil in 1995.

Since then support for South Africa’s national rugby team and the interest in rugby has increased exponentially.

Doctor Buntu Siwisa, who has recently published a few books dealing with the history and politics of rugby, says that the sport has deep roots in African society.

“Rugby has always been a pervasive sport racially across cultures across ethnicities in South Africa although it has traditionally been perceived as a white or Afrikaner sport but black people in South Africa, particularly in the Easter Cape, started playing rugby from 1820 and between 1820 and 1924 it moved across the Port Elizabeth-Grahamstown beltway, moved on to East London and then Gauteng the Transvaal, so you had black communities that played rugby and it was more popular than soccer.”

The Springboks won again in France in 2007, defeating England in the final but it was in 2019 when Bok fever really swept across the country.

The Boks silenced their detractors under the helm of coach Rassie Erasmus and South Africa’s first black captain, Siya Kolisi.

The South Africans lost their opening match in the pool stage of the tournament in Japan, but went on to win the title, defeating England again, this time 32-12 in the final in Yokohama, sparking a frenzy of celebrations across the country.

For Kolisi and his teammates coming together as One Team, One Country, despite their differences and having the full support of home fans, were crucial to their victory.

“I was grateful for everything the team has been through, we faced a lot of challenges, the people of South Africa got behind us, we are so grateful for the people of South Africa. We have so many problems in our country to have a team like this we come from so many backgrounds, different races came together with one goal and we wanted to achieve it to show South Africa that we can pull together, we can achieve something,” said Kolisi

Bok fever once again gripped the nation in 2023.

South Africa again surprised the global rugby fraternity, going further than any rugby union team has gone before, securing a record fourth World Cup victory.

The Springboks defeated arch-rivals the All Blacks by just a single point in the final at the Stade de France in Paris.

Senior UJ Politics Lecturer Dr Buntu Siwisa says, “Sport has proved to be an integral part of our heritage in SA in the sense that not in the traditional way in which we think of heritage in the strict cultural sense where we put on our saris, put on our isibisho not in that but in every social, cultural political aspect that defines what is South Africa that defines what unifies South Africa that distinctly defines and sport and rugby and cricket these and Springboks biltong and borewors these are all parts of our heritage markers that define South Africa.”

South Africa has continued to dominate world rugby following their World Cup triumphs.

They are currently in the top spot in the World rankings and are unbeaten in this year’s Rugby Championship.

They are the overwhelming favourites to win, having defeated Australia and New Zealand twice so far.

Their nation building prowess is unmatched and an example for other sectors of society to embrace and emulate.