One of the great lessons I took away from the Springbok World Cup triumph in 2019, and some of the racial criticisms levelled at the team around representation, is the importance of not just digging into the data.
The data must also be aggregated in such a way that it can illuminate not only why the Springboks have the racial make-up they do, but also why they were successful on the international stage. This lesson is important if we are to navigate the many vagaries of racial identity and politics in this country.
It is also important to note that when the Springboks were losing, the team was criticised and called a ‘quota’ team, which in itself is revealing of an inherent racial outlook and perception. When people are pressed as to which players are quota players, almost no one can offer any kind of substantive answer.
It is an unpopular thing to say, but South Africans across the board seem to have a race delusion and obsession that often is divorced from data, logic, and indeed reality. That said, if we dig into the developmental history of the Springboks, what stands out is not the differences but the sameness; namely that most of the Springboks who donned the Jersey were formed and shaped at a (relatively) few elite schools across the country.
Even Siya Kolisi, with his inspirational story of beating the odds, received a scholarship to powerhouse Grey High in Port Elizabeth. And when he did, he had as much chance as any talented schoolboy player to make a career of rugby. He was essentially plugged into a system that maximised his potential as a rugby player. This is important, since this is what has always been the case for white rugby players too.
Systems matter. Even a cursory glance at Craven Week teams in the last decade will reveal that a majority of players, year after year, come from the same schools which routinely beat every other lower-tier school in the country. This same principle of talent and systems is true of the French World Cup-winning football team and the US national men’s basketball team. Even within top-tier schools, changes have emerged since the dawn of democracy. Formerly white schools such as Queen’s College and Durban High School now routinely have rugby teams that are majority black – and still maintain the same levels of excellence, commitment, and discipline which have characterised earlier teams produced by those schools.
It is with that in mind that claims about racial injustice, whiteness and white privilege have to be viewed. What is clear in South Africa is that there is inequality and it is racialised, but when the data is broken down we can begin to glimpse the why.
The schooling system
It starts with the schooling system, which, 26 years into democracy, is still a bifurcated system in which a small select group of pupils enjoy world-class education and another larger group of students is stuck in one of the worst education systems on the continent. Much of the income gap can be found here, where half of all pupils (mostly black) do not finish high school, are illiterate and innumerate, and are essentially consigned to a life of low income (if any) and instability, while the majority of white and Indian students pass matric and many go on to university.
There are complex social reasons behind this too, but the salient point is that it is odd to frame this as white privilege when it really comes down more to technical problems in education.
This is an obvious point to state, but most black pupils – and indeed people – will never benefit from policies like affirmative action or BBEEE, simply because they do not have the education or mobility to compete with their white counterparts. This is squarely a government problem since most of the education system is in the hands of government.
It is important to say, here, that we all have a vested interest in having a quality education system. Without it, this country’s economy and its hopes of progress will remain stymied. Even if we adopted a self-interested position, everyone, including historically advantaged groups, would benefit if black people en masse were educated and productive members of society, and legitimate black professional and entrepreneurial classes emerged.
In America, where much of the language around privilege originates, on average the highest-earning racial grouping is Asian, which makes sense since they do the best at school and are overrepresented in the Ivy League system. This is another obvious point to make; the most pressing issue in this country is: how do we create an education system in which the smartest, most talented and most capable children are able to enter systems which will nurture and grow their talent and enable them to fulfil their potential?
How does a boy from Zwide, who may have a precocious aptitude for science, get a place in a school which will nurture him, enable him to explore and grow his talent and perhaps guarantee him a shot at Harvard or MIT? It is not unthinkable: Mthatha native Siyabulela Xuza did just this – he invented a rocket fuel as a teenager which would be used by NASA, and he has a minor planet named after him.
So, how do we grow the number of schools delivering a standard of education high enough to enable more and more pupils to be taken up in systems that nurture their ability?
Foundational questions
These are foundational questions, not just about how black South Africans will progress in society, but how more and more black people will come to represent this country on the international stage and be world-beaters. This is something we should all be invested in.
This should in fact should be the basis on which we debate solutions. I personally believe that a school voucher system, part of the Economic Empowerment of the Disadvantaged (EED) system crafted by Dr Anthea Jeffery at the Institute of Race Relations, offers us the first real step in expanding quality education to all children in South Africa, regardless of their socioeconomic background.
Others may differ, but what we should agree on is that upliftment for black people, excellence and meritocracy are not at odds with each other but are in fact what will unlock the potential of this country and help solve our myriad social problems.
The Springboks, and indeed the rugby excellence of our schoolboy system, offer us an object lesson in how black people who have been historically disadvantaged can thrive and be world-beaters. It is instructive that our only tries in rugby World Cup finals have been scored by players of colour, and that nobody cares as long as we win … and beat England, the old enemy.
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR
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