Yet from the moment he acceded to the Presidency in 1994, he made it an
imperative to show that he was prepared to turn his back on old prejudices,
that if South Africa were not to descend into civil war, reconciliation, not
confrontation, had to be top of the agenda. South Africans had to come out
of their laagers. Rugby was the means to that end. Mandela had meetings with
Pienaar soon after the pair of them acceded to their respective offices in
1994. Pienaar’s first game in charge was against England in Pretoria just a
couple of weeks later. The new boys were about to take their bow. Loftus
Versfeld Stadium is considered a shrine to Afrikanerdom, the spiritual home
of the tribe. Mandela knew his target audience, which is why he wanted to be
introduced to the teams before kick-off.
Nelson Mandela during the celebrations at the 1995 Rugby world cup (Getty
Images)
This was the first public test of his presidency. There were thousands of old
South African flags fluttering in the stands as he came on to the pitch. The
hubbub of noise stopped. There were a few unsettling moments of silence.
Then a smattering of applause, which grew and grew. Of course, there were
still many dissenters. There still are. But Mandela had made the first
gesture. And it was noted.
The friendship, for that is what it became, with Pienaar, was to be crucial,
so too the alliance with other seminal figures in that 1995 World Cup
campaign, men such as manager, former Springbok captain, Morne Du Plessis,
the late coach, Kitch Christie and the soon-to-be chief executive of the
union, Edward Griffiths, now at England Premiership club, Saracens.
Griffiths coined the slogan ‘One Team, One Country.’ Black wing Chester
Williams became the face of the tournament. The players were made to learn
by heart the new anthem, the plangent ‘Nkosi Sikelele Afrika.’ (God Bless
Africa). The strident tones of the reactionary ‘Die Stem’ were drowned out.
The Rainbow Nation had its apotheosis at the 1995 Rugby World Cup. South
Africa had been excluded from the first two World Cups in 1987 and 1991.
Isolation had cut South Africans to the quick. Their own sense of
persecution, and innate immodesty, had them believe they would have won both
tournaments. But 1995 was always to be about more than mere sport. Even
Chester Williams getting injured, withdrawing, (before being re-instated
midway through) did not derail the project.
Nelson Mandela, left, cheers as Springbok Rugby captain Francois Pienaar
holds the trophy high after winning the Rugby World Cup (Getty Images)
The ‘Sowetan’ newspaper got behind the cause, dubbing the Springboks,
‘Amabokoboko.’ The event, however, did not light the touch-paper until that
Mandela moment. The man has intellect, sensitivity, toughness but above all,
the PR touch of a Madison Avenue marketing guru. He was there not to support
the Springboks but to support his country. He danced a jig of delight on the
podium and that night black and white danced together in the usually
menacing no-go area around Ellis Park.
Nelson Mandela: life in
pictures
The euphoria subsided and the proper task of overcoming decades of
disadvantage began. It took time, and the project is not finished yet. Only
three years later, Mandela had to take the fearsomely autocratic leader of
South African rugby, Dr Louis Luyt, to task, initiating a public inquiry
into Racism and Nepotism in Rugby. The pair clashed, to the extent that the
usually self-contained Mandela lost his temper, calling Luyt ‘a pitiless
dictator.’ The efforts are slowly having some effect. In 2005 a record nine
black players, six in the starting XV, contested the Mandela Plate for the
Springboks against Australia at Ellis Park.
That uplifting image would have been somewhere in Mandela’s head on that
dramatic day back in 1995. The entire episode was immortalised in the Clint
Eastwood film, ‘Invictus.’ Mandela had no need of celluloid to stamp his
rugby credentials. He was always box-office.
How will you remember Nelson Mandela? Please email your tributes and
memories to mandelatributes@telegraph.co.uk
Article source: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/other-sports/354181/Rugby-Union-Big-dates-for-Wales
Nelson Mandela seized the opportunity of the Rugby World Cup 1995
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