Watching last month's Tri-nations Test in Port Elizabeth recently was a vociferous group of South Africans in black and white, backing the visitors. This apparently contradictory loyalty has it roots in a reaction to apartheid – but now it's time to let go of the past, says Lungile Mpharu.
It must have felt like a home game for the All Blacks when they arrived for last month's Tri-nations Test match in Port Elizabeth, because there was plenty of evidence for the claim that they enjoy more fanatical support from the coloured community than the Springboks do.
Watching last month's Tri-nations Test in Port Elizabeth recently was a vociferous group of South Africans in black and white, backing the visitors. This apparently contradictory loyalty has it roots in a reaction to apartheid – but now it's time to let go of the past, says Lungile Mpharu.
It must have felt like a home game for the All Blacks when they arrived for last month's Tri-nations Test match in Port Elizabeth, because there was plenty of evidence for the claim that they enjoy more fanatical support from the coloured community than the Springboks do.
One could understand why their dads may have supported the All Blacks during the 1980s, and also why they didn't want to get behind a team who were the poster boys for Afrikaner racial segregation.
But with more than 20 years of racial integration and transformation in South African sport, and the selection of numerous black and coloured players for the Springboks, surely it's time for coloureds to get over the wrongs of the past and get behind our national rugby team?
Grahamstown resident, Elton Marney, who recently challenged people's loyalty to the Springboks on a social networking site, was the first to talk to Grocott's Mail: "It stems from the apartheid era. I also supported Australia. I feel it was an act of defiance against the old regime by all non-white South Africans."
Theo Christian, a baker at His Majesty's Fruit & Veg City, recalls, "A highlight of my childhood was watching the All Blacks at the Port Elizabeth Stadium in 1970 and taking pictures of Bryan Williams. "Our family was involved in a political organisation and my uncle was jailed, so I think that also played a role," said Christian, who lives in the formerly coloured area near the Albany Road bridge.
The problem is New Zealand don't enjoy support only from that generation. Children who were born well after the first democratic election also support them – simply because their parents do.
In the current Rugby World Cup squad there are five coloureds and only one black player – yet you don't see black people suddenly supporting France, who historically have had quite a few people of colour in their teams.
The memory of apartheid-era rugby seems to be the only reason the coloured community supports the All Blacks.
It's time the record is set straight, or we are bound to produce many more generations of New Zealand supporters.
