From: pieter@ford.ee.up.ac.za (Pieter Vermeulen)
Subject: Re: All Blacks vs South Africa
Date: 17 Aug 92 15:28:19 GMT
Organization: University of Pretoria, South Africa

higham@waikato.ac.nz writes:

>Interesting to see in that South African newspaper report nothing about the
>disgraceful 1 minute silence planned for the start of the test in memory of the
>deaths in the republic and for future peace. I found it extremely sad and
>distasteful that large sections of the crowd ignored the silence and sang some
>Boer anthem instead. 
This incident has a bit more to it and has been described by a
Nationalist politician as 'peaceful mass action' against the ANC.
I am of the opinion that there would not have been a single South
African flag in the crowd and nobody would have cared whether the
South African anthem was sung was it not for NOCSA(SA version of
IOC)/ANC deciding that a neutral flag and no anthem would be used at
the Olympics. Anyway, the point is that there are still a few million
people in South Africa who regard these symbols as important. When it was
announced that the anthem would not be sung at the test, there was a
popular (in terms of rugby supporters) move to sing it anyway. When
the players got onto the field these people started singing and did
not hear the announcement for the 1 minute silence. If they new that
the anthem would have been sung afterwards, then there would have been
no problem, the announcement would have been heard, the 1 minute
silence would most probably have been observed.  

>For christs sake. And there is no excuse that the size of
>the crowd precluded such an observance taking place, I've seen much bigger
>stadiums than Ellis park stay quiet (Wembley stadium for example). What a slap
>in the face for Nelson Mandela sitting in the stands, a continuation of a long
>tradition of total insensitivity and racism to the majority of South Africas
>people. 
The ANC is but one of the parties with significant support in South
Africa. Yes, they most probably have the majority support, but they
are but one of the significant groupings.  

>I hope that the ANC says right, fuck you, if you guys don't play fair we'll
>make the Wallabies take the next flight home and it'll be bye bye Newlands next
>Saturday. 
They did yesterday and the Wallabies said fuck you too. The ANC do not
neccesarily have the power to tell people what to do. Sometimes people
disagree with the ANC not because they are racists, but because the
ANC have bad ideas.

>I thought even those crass rugby fans of South Africa could see that
>its in their best interests to play ball with the black majority rather than
>cynically slap them in the face. 
There are more important issues than Rugby here..., like a
constitution for example. What you saw here was part of that
bargaining process and had nothing to do with rugby as such.  Neither
had the 1 minute silence for that matter.

>I reckon laboratory rats show more
>understanding of principles of reward/punishment theories than the many of the
>fans I saw at Ellis PArk on Saturday.
And lab rats let people put shit in their eyes...

>What do the South African subscribers to this group feel about this? 
I though it was a signal of a wider divide between black and white
after a time of reconciliation. In a way it was a reaction to the mass
action campaign of the ANC/SACP/Cosatu. It is either the start of a
black (as in no light) future or a temporary setback in the way to a
not so black future.

Pieter Vermeulen


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