Are we the fans of mediocrity?

When a nation is almost thinking it does not have enough talent, it is always important to narrow it down to communities. South Africa has celebrated a lot of things, including mediocrity. This is when a former champ (Springboks) celebrates coming up third in a world cup in England 2015, the host of the 2010 soccer world cup (Bafana) tournament celebrates breaking the wrong record of being the first host to be knocked out in the first round and the number one ranked team (Proteas) always fails to deliver a trophy at major tournaments.

The Eastern Cape used to be known for being the home of Boxing.That title is escaping the province as Johannesburg is slowly dominating in this contact sport. The province has produced a long list of world class boxers. This long list includes the likes of Vuyani Bhungu, Happy Boy Mgxaji, Mbulelo Bhotile, etc, who were putting the Republic on the map. Welcome Ncitha opened a boxing gym few years after his retirement and tried to produce some youngsters. Something went wrong somewhere because it seems like these legends have not felt the need to reproduce their kind to sustain the stronghold of the Eastern Cape as the “home of boxing.” This has led to the nation losing its plot in the boxing game. People no longer fill the theatres like they used to and it is very common these days to find people who do not even know who is holding which belt. People have lost interest.

This pattern is dominant in every sport in the province and everyone has learnt to accept the situation. There used to be pride in wearing a Border shirt or tracksuit whilst in your community, because it meant that someone important noticed how well you are in your sport. If you got your border gear you wanted to cling on it because it was your light at the end of the tunnel, your ticket to the big time. Every weekend you had to be on the lookout because the border scouts were always around and you could be picked. This was compromised greatly when you had to first know somebody from the scouts or have friends in high places before you were considered for selection. This was the beginning of unfortunate things to come for the province. The key word is “administration” and it does not matter how good you are with the words. The province is vastly known as the poorest among the nine in the country. This statistic does not exclude the former greats of the boxing game. They also fall under the misfortunes of maladministration like the whole province does. You must know that if you don’t maintain what you have, then you are quickly drawing closer to its end. 

Now and then you’d hear our former greats talking about giving back to the game and when you look closely at this “giving back,” you’d see that it is actually asking the game for help. I say this because these “giving backs” are not voluntary, people expect to get paid. It is also sad to see someone you used to see on TV being poorer than you are because the perception is that being on TV means you are around a lot of money. This makes me wonder what the “managers” or “agents” good for? Or do they fall under overall maladministration?