BREAKING FREE FROM MEDIOCRITY – THE CHALLENGE FOR SOUTH AFRICAN SPORT – PART II

In Part 1, I shared five reasons why South African sports remain mediocre and are failing to realise their full potential, from our inability to introspect and face uncomfortable truths to resistance to change and a lack of integrity among key stakeholders. These issues vary in nature, ranging from soft and straightforward to hard and complex.

In this article, I aim to dispel the myth that individual successes in elite sporting events, such as the World Championships and the Olympics, indicate the existence of widespread and effective sporting systems across the country.

South Africa’s approach to sport seems to be based on the belief that prioritising outcomes will transform the country into a winning nation. But this idea is not true at all. South Africa produces athletes like Tatjana Smith, Akani Simbine, and Wayde van Niekerk, all of whom excel in international events. However, the critical point is that these athletes, along with many others, are the products of a few exceptional programmes that focus on effective practices for nurturing talent at a young age. They do not represent a functioning national system. Their success conceals a much larger failure.

Unfortunately, where South Africa falls short is its lack of understanding of how elite athletes are able to compete successfully against the best in the world. Let me illustrate this gap with three telling examples.

Underfunding Proven Success

Only a handful of programmes, including clubs, possess the resources necessary to nurture and develop athletes from a young age until they become world champions or runners-up in international events. These programmes have invested in facilities and expertise (coaching and other supports) for many years. If sporting bodies, federations, governments, and the National Lottery Commission truly understood what it takes to develop talented athletes, they would prioritise funding for programmes with proven track records of producing world-class competitors, ensuring both athletes and coaches received the support they needed. However, the reality is that many of our most successful programmes, especially those at universities, continue to bear these costs on their own, receiving little recognition or support for consistently producing top athletes.

Celebrating Too Early, Learning Too Late

The media and South Africans often celebrate the successes of our athletes and teams prematurely, even before the finals have occurred. For example, consider South Africa’s Netball Baby Proteas, who reached the semi-finals of their first Netball World Youth Cup. Everyone went overboard with excitement about the Baby Proteas' performance. That excitement faded after the next game when they suffered a defeat against the U21 Australian team. Instead of continuing to ignore the situation, we should have realised long ago that countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, and the United Kingdom have established systems and processes designed to develop talented netball players from a very young age. Unfortunately, our players did not receive the same opportunities.

Football's Wasted Potential

The lack of decent facilities in football is outrageous. I work in football and have witnessed hundreds of players training and competing on dirt football fields across the country. Interest in playing football is evident throughout South Africa. Now imagine if these dust bowls were replaced with decent, well-maintained facilities nationwide, with SAFA ensuring effective club governance and every club properly incorporated and managed. I am confident that South Africa would rise to the top of the world football rankings. Consider how many young players would be scouted by international teams because of a model system of development that starts at the local government level and continues right through to the professional ranks. As international teams sign their sons and daughters, they would lift many families out of poverty. Imagine the quality of players we'd have in Bafana and Banyana if the local government ensured good sports facilities, with which hundreds of local football associations (LFAs) could organise leagues.

All these scenarios raise important questions

• What makes it so difficult to recognise sports programmes and clubs that operate effectively?

• What is it that we fail to understand about talent development?

• If we accept that it takes years of education, training, and substantial investment in funds, facilities, and expertise to produce a nurse, teacher, or doctor, how is it that we think sportspeople will reach the top on raw ability alone?

• What rock are we hiding under that prevents us from recognising that the same long-term investment, quality coaching, and infrastructure required to develop any professional must also be applied to nurturing and developing talented athletes?

We do not need another sports conference to discuss how to improve sports in South Africa. We want action in the form of a long-term national plan for sport; the training and appointment of men and women with relevant qualifications at all levels of government and sport governing bodies; the appointment and fast-tracking of physical educators and coaches to run school sport programmes; and the upgrading and construction of facilities that are accessible, well-maintained, and meet appropriate standards. We can no longer treat sport as if talent alone is sufficient, as if world-class performance can emerge from dirt bowls and neglect. Fellow South Africans, we have the potential to achieve transformative success within the next 5 to 15 years, but only if we begin now, where we are, with the resources we currently have.