South Africa’s best black rugby player has prompted uproar by denouncing the national sport as a bastion of white supremacy which faked multiracial harmony to host the 1995 world cup with Nelson Mandela’s blessing.
On the eve of the Springboks’ European tour, Chester Williams, a pinup for post-apartheid reconciliation, said he was ostracised and called a kaffir by fellow players and that prejudice flourished behind the myth of a changed society.
Williams said the unity lasted a week after South Africa won the cup and that he was racially abused while being marketed as the symbol of a new beginning: ”That popular image of me being a black rugby icon was a bad joke.”
The row has since widened, turning the spotlight on the cricket, football and hockey authorities’ alleged reluctance to select black players.
The revelations have shaken those who say apartheid truly ended not when Mr Mandela was freed or elected president but when he wore a Springbok jersey and scooped up a ball at the 1995 tournament to signal support for a game long-identified with white minority rule.
The winger nicknamed the ”black pearl” was a star of the host’s unexpected triumph and the sight of right-wing Boers cheering his tries stoked hopes that multiracial harmony would become a reality.
Williams, who was appointed coach of the national seven-a-side team after retiring as a player last year, said the sport was rife with racial abuse and the belief that black people were inferior. The claims are likely to dog the Springboks ahead of their games against France, Scotland and England.
The allegations are made in A Biography of Courage, an authorised account of the winger’s career by Mark Keohane, the Springboks’ communications manager, and published in South Africa today.
Excerpts in SA Sports Illustrated have triggered an outcry, with critics saying the book had smeared a source of national pride just to boost sales.
Williams alleged that fellow wing, James Small, regularly taunted him. ”Small called me a fucking kaffir and shouted, ‘Why do you want to play our game? You know you can’t play it.’ ”
Instead of congratulating his team-mate on a second try against England in a 1995 game at Twickenham, Small allegedly said: ”Fuck it, why didn’t you pass?”
Williams was not surprised. ”I had been called the k-word many times in my rugby life. It was standard practice in most matches I played in the early 1990s and James had a reputation for being abusive and vocal on the field.”
Small said in a statement through his lawyer that he had ”no independent recollection of the specific events to which Chester refers”.
Williams said that while on international tours he would eat on his own while the rest of the squad ate together.
The coach, Nick Mallet, allegedly excluded him from the 1999 world cup by saying he had enough ”quota” players.
”The marketing men conveniently branded me a sign of change – nothing could have been more of a lie.”
The book’s author said it was the international media which had fabricated the myth of unity and that those inside the game knew that without places reserved for black players teams would remain white-dominated.
Some rugby officials were less bothered about the claims of racism than the book’s affront in calling the world cup winning captain, Francois Pienaar, more flash than substance.
The controversy has also revived resentment against those such as Williams who cooperated with white-dominated institutions before apartheid was dismantled.
”This country has yet to decisively and significantly deal with black South Africans who collaborated with that regime,” Phylicia Oppelt, a newspaper columnist, said yesterday.
Frustrated with the paucity of black players on national teams, the ANC government announced in February that it would consider laws to force sporting federations and coaches to field black players.
The male hockey team lost its national status last year for choosing only white players. Football officials were accused of the same during the African Cup of Nations finals while the United Cricket Board said recently it wanted to end quotas. – Guardian Unlimited