Springboks co-opted to failed president's election campaign

Predictably, the Springboks' Rugby World Cup win unleashed hyperbolic praise from media, opinion writers and President Cyril Ramaphosa, all, incorrectly, describing it as an example of "unity" and common purpose by South Africans. For example, on Tuesday October 31 there were five op-eds in Daily Maverick, including of Ramaphosa's address to the nation the day before, all saying basically the same thing. News24's headline news and commentary is almost entirely about the Springboks' triumphant return.

One can draw the conclusion they're all singing from the Ramaphoria and ANC choir sheet. The clue is "unity" used excessively in all reports. Unity is important to Ramaphosa and ANC - ANC unity that is.

They and similarly minded forget that to the teams competing in RWC, and cricket world cup, these are merely games played by professionals. The game comes first, followed by personal achievement. Patriotic intentions might matter, but not all that much. If it did the Springboks would not have won by one point in a closely matched game, but 10, 20 or 50. If they'd lost by that much or greater, the opinionistas' panegyrics would never have been written (did they write pieces in case the team lost?).

But win they did and the Invisible Man and Missing in Action president, whose party is losing in opinion polls by a fair margin, desperately grabbed the opportunity - Ramaphoster literally grabbed the Webb Ellis trophy from Springbok captain Siya Kolisi -to deflect attention from the country's very serious problems. 

Eskom is the canary of state health as well as a metaphor for ANC rule. Immediately after the RWC final, in some places an hour later, loadshedding resumed. Despite the ANC government's promises it will ease, it has not. This is still happening despite South Africans and industry easing demands on Eskom by installing solar.

Away from the RWC blip, Treasury has repeatedly warned government shall run out of money early next year, which the Invisible Man and ANC has denied will happen.

So what does he do? He declares a public holiday and parade for the Springboks. SA already has too many public holidays costing billions in lost productivity. Even if it's in slow December, the only sectors spared from outright losses are retail, tourism and certain services but for the rest and employers who must pay workers for that dead day, it's red ink in their ledgers.

But economics is something the purported businessman Ramaphosa, who's never built up a business himself, and socialist/communist ANC never understood which is partly why we're here today.

Roman emperors held games and parades to distract citizens from the Republic's problems. Ramaphosa, who otherwise is missing in action most of the year from almost every important issue facing the country, gratefully accepted the Springboks' close victory to create a false reality the ANC hopes will last to 2024's elections. Many South Africans are choosing to believe it.

If the Springbok team and management were really patriotic they would have politely declined being exploited for political and party political purposes and opted for a dignified, low key event. Their victory is theirs, not Ramaphosa's or ANC's to usurp. But since it seems they have already accepted, they've chosen to be co-opted to a failed president's and party's election campaign.