Transformation has been a buzz word in South African sports; it will likely remain one for some time to come.
While politicians like Butana Komphela can still make headlines with firebrand statements, the corresponding public discussion on web boards or in readers’ letters often remains trapped by its own racial myopia. It does not properly distinguish between top-level national and international competitions on one hand and grassroots outreach and mass sports on the other.
Transformation has been uneven; initially it was not embraced voluntarily, but had to be forced from outside. With time, mentalities have slowly changed, with some smaller sports codes (like table tennis with Hajera Kajee) admirably breaking the trend.
Today the examples of rugby and cricket have seen some remarkable movement. Coaches are very much aware of their responsibilities and their talent outreach now actively looks at young black sportsmen.
But other sports codes still present negative examples.
One such glaring example of continuing apartheid are the shooting sports. Of the 169 South African shooters listed as potential competitors in the shooters’ database of the International Shooting Sports Federation, 165 names appear to be white, one is Indian, and three are black.
So much for the apparent lack of transformation in this specific sport code. It would be easy to cry out “racism” at such an appalling sight.
A high-ranking shooting sports official, who refused to be named, gave the Mail & Guardian a damning insight into the sport. “SASSF [the South African Shooting Sports Federation] is charged with making this sport available to all and of course producing medals at world-class events. This organisation is managed by people who use the terms ‘transformation’, ‘development’ and ‘previously disadvantaged people’ only when it suits them and when they are begging for funding.”
Funds are wasted
He said when funding arrives it is wasted on ad hoc “training” programmes and “once-off money burning spending splurges”.
“The current management committee of SASSF has caused such damage that I sincerely hope it’s not too late to salvage something,” said the official.
SASSF president Hennie Jacobs did not deny the allegations. “Areas like Soweto and Alex are not gun friendly. I will not take my firearm to those areas and offer it for use,” said Jacobs.
The M&G source further claimed that the vibrant schools shooting association (Sanssu), which is successful even at international competitions, receives no funding “and has suffered only abuse”.
He blamed government for the state of the sport. “Government has only pushed transformation in popular sports codes that get television air time; sadly, shooting isn’t one of them, so nothing has really happened in our sport.”
Besides the SASSF’s shortcomings, the fact that shooters of colour don’t make it to the international scene has to do with South Africa’s socio-economic situation. But what are the other reasons for this lamentable state of affairs?
First, the very sport itself is associated with airguns and firearms, and since arms ownership, historically, has been a mark of white dominance, it seems difficult for black South Africans to embrace the sport.
Second, the “doorstep anxiety” of potentially interested new sportswomen and men, especially younger ones, at the entrances to shooting clubs and shooting ranges seems high. Black citizens may feel — wrongly or rightly — that they would be unwelcome there.
As the unnamed official admitted: “You are perfectly right in saying that shooting is seen as a sport that has for the most part kept the stigma of being a ‘white sport’. In South Africa there is still the old viewpoint that shooting is simply a sport at which [black] Africans are useless.”
Indifference
Here Jacobs differs: “There is very little interest from black parents in the sport. Once I approached a group of women who said they will never allow their sons to learn how to shoot. It’s a matter of choice, I don’t like football and cannot blame people for not liking shooting.”
Third, the often dysfunctional and internally riven shooting organisations seem to have done little to embrace and to further the goal of “transformation”; neither do they actively reach out and attract younger shooters from the previously disadvantaged citizens. If one looks at the results lists and internal competition rankings of the federations, almost all the active shooters have white names.
And if one looks at the junior level, the situation is even worse. At the May 2009 International Junior Competition in Suhl, Germany (one of the world’s major shooting events for junior talents), all of South Africa’s junior shooters were white.
This snippet might better than any other show the failure of the shooting sports organisations. And this situation is not expected to change this year because nobody in the shooting associations seems interested in changing the status quo.
From March 20 to 28 2010 the African Continental Shooting Championships will take place in Tipaza, Algeria. South Africa has sent talented and often successful sportsmen and women to these tournaments in the past. The International Shooting Sport Federation World Championships in Munich, Germany, begins on July 29; the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore are on from August 14 to 26; andthe Commonwealth Games in India in October.
But one must ask the sports minister: will there be — not eventhe nominal 50%, but at least a single — black shooter in this year’s teams? And if not, is it really tenable to help finance the significant expenses for such strictly colour-segregated participation from the ever-limited public sports funds?
Alexander Eichener is an administrative lawyer in civil life and a competitive shooter himself