VINCE VAN DER BIJL: Our national teams inspire awe in revealing what an exciting nation we can become

What a glorious sporting weekend that was, with the ICC Women’s World Cup, the Cape Town Cycle Tour (CTCT), the Sunshine Golf Tour and so much cricket, soccer and rugby on SuperSport. School and club sport were also in full swing. We are almost back to normal.

The Proteas, our women’s national team, have the country’s full attention. Their vastly improved athleticism, stroke-play and bowling is captivating, as is their fierce competitiveness. The Proteas have in the past year become a global force as their win this week over England confirms. They are now such positive influencers and champions of change. No longer does women’s cricket linger in the shadow of the men’s game.

In the same vein, community sport drives gender equality and social cohesion. School and club sport produces constantly swirling conversations between fans, parents and players. This leads to a greater mutual understanding, so absent in SA.

That is the glory of sport. However, politicians and many sports executives are inclined to ignore grassroots sport, looking only for international triumph by the teams that are demographically representative. They merely pay lip service to the essence of transformation on the ground.

SA’s sporting purpose should be “sport to be enjoyed by all”.  Achieve that, and the politicians and administrators have fulfilled their sporting purpose.

Sport is central to the required change in SA. Let me illustrate that by highlighting last weekend’s activities involving just one township in the Western Cape South Peninsula, Masiphumelele. It mirrors what is happening throughout the country.

Each event was meticulously organised by volunteers, educators and the provincial, school and club administrators.

• On Friday, the annual KFC mini-cricket festival was held at Newlands with 71 KFC teams from all over the Western Cape. The mixed gender teams danced, laughed, played and chatted. The primary schools from the South Peninsula were there en masse.

• Fish Hoek Cricket Club on Friday afternoon held their weekly youth cricket clinic, coaching 35 kids from the surrounding townships and residential areas.  Ten young cricketers, boys and girls, from Masiphumelele were chosen to play for the FHCC second team and in the under-10 and under-11 sides.

• On Saturday at the Western Province athletics meeting in Paarl an under-10 female athlete from Ukhanyo Primary, Masiphumelele, was selected for the Western Cape athletics team. She will now compete in the nationals.

• There were two friendly Masiphumelele RFC vs UCT rugby matches at the Masi RFC field heralding the start of the season. There have been no matches there for two years and the fans came out in force.

• Many young cyclists from the valley, including seven young riders from the Masiphumelele schools, received their medals for completing the CTCT.

• Masiphumelele High School successfully organised a CTCT waterpoint for the third time.

These events enrich social cohesion and create gender and racial equality through spontaneous engagement across the nation. This is just one weekend in a small part of SA.

Children at school develop crucially important learning capabilities, which in time enhance their future and increases economic growth. Children, though, in classrooms are limited to the academic process. Put them on a sports field and they experience the wider world, learning first-hand the humiliation of defeat, to be victorious with grace, the need to respect officials and the opposition, teamwork, discipline and the knowledge of their own power. Whether privileged or underprivileged, the best athletes and teams win.

The government must change its approach to youth sport. The ANC successfully used the sports boycott as one tool to pressure the National Party to change. They can now use the power of sport positively to unify this much-divided country.

I watch our national teams in awe as they reveal what an exciting nation we can become. The Proteas and Springboks, however, come from a handful of Model C and private schools, almost without exception. This can change.

It remains unfathomable that the government does not push through these simple strategies to uplift the underprivileged.

Sports and life skills nonprofit organisations, together with sports federations, eagerly await to be involved in a collaborative approach to assist. The current silo departmental approach does not work. This process can begin with various government departments — basic education; sport, arts and culture; women, youth and persons with disabilities — developing  a collaborative forum. The forum could map out an integrated youth education, sport and life-skills strategy.

The country has waited too long for this simple and essential process.