CENTURION - It felt soulless, it definitely wasn’t co-ordinated and it looked like all the players wanted was for it to be over.
As the national anthem ended, the Proteas men’s team, still standing in a line, raised their right fists. First one, then two more, then another and finally Temba Bavuma. They kept their fists raised for a few seconds, then dropped them, turned around and got into a huddle.
It lacked heart. Why not raise their fists and keep them raised for the duration of the singing of the national anthem? That would have been powerful and symbolic.
Raising a fist instead of taking a knee was the Proteas’ way of showing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. In choosing a gesture that was theirs, the players deserve credit. There are some in the squad who’ve claimed religious grounds for not kneeling. And that is to be respected.
But there’s a sense from the Proteas that they don’t feel that Black Lives Matter is important to South Africa, that it is an American thing. In a statement released on behalf of the players, they referenced Colin Kaepernick, the NFL quarterback who first drew attention to kneeling as a form of protest. When George Floyd was murdered by a policeman in Minneapolis earlier this year, kneeling took on an even more powerful symbol. It was by having a policeman shove his knee into his neck that Floyd died. His death sparked the global protests witnessed in the middle of the year and which have continued in the United States.
Perhaps the players, many of whom did kneel during the 3TC match earlier this year at the height of the global protests, feel too detached from that, that it's an American thing.
It isn’t. It is very much a South African cause too, for Black people’s lives in this country still don’t matter, regardless of the nicely written constitution and the abolishment of the brutal apartheid laws.
Andries Tatane was shot dead in Ficksburg in the Free State in 2011 during service delivery protests, 34 miners were shot dead at Marikana in 2012, Collins Khosa was beaten to death by soldiers from the SA National Defence Force, this year, Bulelani Qolani was dragged from his shack naked - this year.
Black Lives Matter isn’t a movement that is on the other side of the ocean. It’s importance resonates right here; in Khayelitsha, in Alexandra, Ficksburg and in Marikana. Black people in South Africa continue to bear the brunt of suffering, hence the numerous service delivery protests that still occur, even now nearly 10 years since Tatane was beaten and then shot twice in the chest.
Apparently there’ve been a number of discussions amongst the players just this week about Black Lives Matter. Those discussions led to the raised fist gesture. “We recognize that our actions will most likely result in criticism from some community, one way or another, but work to prioritise the team, to be honest about our own learning journey and to continue to make decisions that we can own in good conscience as a team, first and foremost, and as individuals.”
They will have to “own” this one then. This uncoordinated, uninterested and detached action.
@shockerhess
IOL Sport