According to Julius Malema, the African National Congress Youth League leader, ‘The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) decision to test Semenya is racist and sexist’. One cannot blame anyone to be annoyed at what has gone on. But it is not racism or sexism, it is downright disgraceful behaviour from the IAAF and jealousy from those that were beaten especially the Italian and Russian competitors who are quoted of saying “For me she is not a woman,” Furthermore it is offensive, hurtful and humiliating to a young superb athlete of this calibre, who has outrun her rivals in a world champoinship by over two seconds, when normally the difference between the first three is 100th of a second. The IAAF has certainly let this athlete down.
Zapiro’s Sunday Times cartoon of the 23rd August 2009 gets it right.
For more Zapiro cartoons visit www.zapiro.com
Almost everything about the issue is fuzzy: Where does one draw the biological line between male and female, exactly what standard is used by the track authorities in deeming a female ineligible to compete as a woman, precisely what tests answer such questions. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has asked for reports that will take weeks to review - from a gynecologist, an endocrinologist, a psychologist, a specialist in internal medicine and a gender expert.
We all thought that the “PdV” acronym stood for Peter de Villiers, South Africans current rugby coach. Since last week-end, PdV has a new significance - Public defender for Villains (on the rugby field). Schalk Burger normally a magnificent tough but fair rugby player let the South African rugby fans down by his behavior on the field and has made the series victory over the B&I Lions a little hollow but what made it worse was the blind defence from Peter de Villiers over the incident and the way he went about it after the match. While most observers, including Springbok supporters were shocked at the incident, PdV reacted differently - “I don’t believe it was a card at all,” De Villiers said after the Springboks’ series clinching but extremely narrow victory. What would have happened if Schalk had been handed a red card and the Springboks had to play with 14 men for 79 minutes? Would the result have been the same?
Zapiro’s cartoon of the 2nd July 2009 in the Times says it all
For more Zapiro cartoons visit http://www.zapiro.com
Bafana Bafana went down 1-0 to Brazil last night as they missed out on reaching the Confederations Cup Final. Very few people gave us any hope in last nights game but credit must go to the boys for putting up such a brave fight. If Captain Aron did not give away that silly freekick on the edge of the box that Brazil subsequently scored from, I believe we could have gone into extra time and then penalties and we could have won.
But we must take a lot of heart away from the performance last night. It just went to show that we can mix it up with the big boys of world soccer. My main worry though is that with all the possession and game play we had, we failed to score. The reason I say that we are so close but yet so far is that we are close to having a good team that is very capable of making us proud come the World Cup in 2010, but we are so far from having striker or the attacking strength to really become a strong force. The fact that we only score two goals in the whole tournament which we played four games does not sit down well with me. We need to attack more and score goals.
This Confederations Cup was meant to be Theko’s tournament to shine but he let us down big time. Maybe we put too much pressure on him to perform and it became a bit too much. I hope he can learn from this and he will be ready for 2010. With our lack of goals, I got to think, should we recall Benni McCarthy? We need someone come 2010 who knows how to score.
But all in all, well done Bafana, you did not let us down last night against Brazil. We can build from this experience and be ready for 2010.
We are a year away from the start of the FIFA 2010 World Cup but Is the Bafana Bafana team ready to take on the big boys? Well those who watched Sunday’s opening match against the Asian champions Iraq will come away disappointed. South Africa missed three relatively easy chances to create a goal to beat the no 86 in the world especially when Bernard Parker acted in defence rather than in attack. Would a higher bonus offer have changed the result?
Zapiro’s cartoon of the 11th March 2009 in The Times, shows Danny Jordaan dismayed at Bafana Bafana’s ludicrous and greedy demand for SAR 34 million as a cash incentive to perform in the tournament.
For more Zapiro cartoons visit www.zapiro.com
I was outraged when I was reading the The Star newspaper this morning and I saw a headline saying, “Bulls fan says she was verbally abused”. When I saw the headline, I thought to myself - what could this all be about? I was thinking along the lines of a woman rugby fan being verbally abused by a bunch a drunk fans at the stadium. But that was not the case as this story was about a black woman who was verbally abused by a Bulls fan at Loftus on Saturday where she went to watch the Bulls take on the Cheetahs.
According to the article, the woman was told, in Afrikaans, the the Union Buildings were on the “other side” - which the woman understood to imply that she and her niece were not wanted at Loftus. The article does not say if the man was white or black but it is pretty obvious that it was a white man saying this to the woman. “You should go to the inauguration of the president at the Union Buildings, you shouldn’t be at Loftus,” is what the man said to the black woman.
We all know that the Union Buildings were a hive of activity on Saturday as Jacob Zuma was being inaugurated as the new president of South Africa, meaning that this man may have been suggesting to the lady that she should be at the Union Buildings where she would be welcome as she is not welcome at Loftus. Why should she have gone to the Union Buildings? Because she is black?
I myself would not be surprised if this story is true and this actually happened to the black lady. I have always had the impression that Loftus on a day the Bulls are playing is not the best place to be if you are a black person as you will be in a serious minority. Granted that rugby is a predominantly ‘white’ sport but does that mean a black fan of rugby should not feel comfortable and welcome when they decide to go out and watch a rugby game? If my memory serves me correct, a similar incident happened to a black fan when they went to watch the Springboks play rugby. Why is it so hard for blacks to be able to freely enjoy themselves at a live rugby match?
I am a big rugby fan and have watched a lot of live rugby at Newlands in Cape Town and I have never for one day had a ‘racial’ problem there. I have yet to watch rugby at Loftus but after reading this story today, I am having doubts about going to watch rugby at Loftus as I am black. Is it just a Loftus and Coca-Cola park thing?
Should this be the case? NO! I should be able to go, watch and enjoy myself at any rugby venue in South Africa that I please. I am also paying just like the other fans who are there regardless of their colour.
It is not too often that we can sit here in South Africa and be happy with all three of our major sporting teams. Most of the time, one of them is loosing (most times it is Bafana Bafana) or one day all the talk is about how the rugby coach is letting the country down. I am referring to Bafana Bafana, the Springboks and the Proteas; Soccer, Rugby and Cricket respectively. All three teams won this week that has just gone by. I actually can not remember the last time that all three of these teams have one in the same week.
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Finally, Bafana Bafana is now winning! Last night Bafana Bafana beat Cameroon 3-2 in the Nelson Mandela Challenge played at a packed Olympia Park. This was a game Bafana Bafana just had to win to restore some confidence to a nation which is not 100% the national soccer team. Many have doubted Bafana’s ability as they always seem to let the fans down due to some poor performances. But now after three successive victories over Malawi, Equatorial Guinea and Ghana they have added to that by claiming the scalp of Cameroon.
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Finally sense has prevailed. Earlier in the year, it had been suggested that the South Africa rugby team stop using the Springbok emblem as it was part of the apartheid era and that the King Protea should replace the Springbok. Not many people were too happy about loosing the Springbok but now Saru president Oregan Hoskins and his deputy Mark Alexander, and the sports minister, the Reverend Makhenkesi Stofile met in Cape Town today and decided the the Springbok emblem can continue to be used but will now be put on the right hand side of the jursey.
The King Protea will be placed on the left hand side of the jursey. So now the Springbok and the King Protea will happily ‘live’ together side by side and hopefully this will be the end of this Springbok emblem issue.
It looks like the days of calling our nation rugby team the Springboks could be over. An intense first day of the National Sports Indaba ended in Durban today with many delegates calling for the Springbok emblem to be stripped off from the national rugby team. South Africa’s sports federations are calling for the Boks to loose their emblem as they are the only national team that still uses the Springbok and that they should use the King Protea just like everyone else.
As expected, this decision has not been welcome in some quarters, most notably from SA Rugby themselves. The Springbok has not only become an emblem that the whole country relates to the national rugby team with but it has also become a huge commercial brand for SA Rugby. It would be a drastic change for many to have to leave the Springbok. Can you imagine going to watch the Springboks (okay, for now we will call them ‘The National Rugby Team’) and be chanting “Go Protea!” instead of “Go Bokke”? Go Protea does not seem to have that ring to it.
If they want to fire Springbok coach, Peter de Villiers, then they should just do so without having to find a non-rugby related incident to do so. The headline in yetserdays Sunday Times newspaper was about an alleged sex tape featuring de Villiers. It is undertstood that they are people within the rugby fraternity who now want to use this tape against de Villiers so they can get rid of the first black coach to coach the Springboks.
It is no secret that there were many people who did not want de Villiers to be appointed the Springbok coach after Jake White stepped down. There were varying reasons for the disapproval of de Viliers, ranging from his lack of experience at the high level to the simple fact that he is black. The later did not sit well with some and I assume those are the ones putting together the story of this alleged sex tape. It looks like this is a simple matter of blackmail: “We will not release the tape if you step down as coach.” Now firstly, does this tape even exist? Obviously de Villiers has come out and said it does not. In the coaches own words, “I knew there were still people who do not want a black coach; I just never knew the extent people would go to discredit me.”
