Cape Town is a powerhouse of football, but one would be shocked by how this overrated province treats its people differently.
Race is still an issue and it will remain that way until all sections of the community curb their egos about their race.
I am saying all this after my experience during the Football 4 Humanity soccer event held recently in the province.
Firstly, we all have to applaud the South African Football Association (SAFA) Cape Town hierarchy for organising that soccer spectacle held at Athlone stadium a fortnight ago.
The event, played over two weekends, was to show the province’s support to the people of Palestine. Whoever came up with that idea to show the Palestinian people support deserves credit.
But with the dust just settled, we ought to look back and make some assessment and introspection on how we handled the event, our behaviour, have we done good for the Palestinians because the event wasn’t about us but about them. The event was about to pass the message to the world that Palestine needs help.
As much as we have to praise the organisers, we also have to condemn some of them for their treatment of the media.
For the first time in my life I have never seen media so mistreated like it was at the event. Mind you, they all got accreditation from the same organisation. The media was asked to apply for accreditation and they did, but still fell victim to the Safa members. At first I thought I was the only victim until I saw the public broadcaster crew having to go without the content because of that mistreatment.
As the media set foot on the foyer, the first thing they were told was, “the media shouldn’t be here”. Come it was at the foyer where we all took the lift. There was a tall, arrogant lady who just could not listen. What was bad was that she could not even say where the media should be. At some point we had to force ourselves in some areas. But the public broadcaster staff could not handle the heat, and had to leave. Obviously the crew was there because the president of the country was going to be there.
Me and a few others from the media had to sit on the stands because there was no space prepared for the media to sit. The situation was so unpleasant that some had to leave.
Coming back to the race issue prior to the event. To those who are not clued up, there teams were selected to play against the Palestinians, one from the local teams, a legends team and lastly a media team.
In all the teams, race was a big issue. In all the three teams that I mentioned, there were only three black African players. Whether one likes it or not, that is pure racism in my book. We are a province where black players are all over the place. You cannot tell me in the squad of more than 60 (in all the teams) blacks could only make up three. That is unless the word was clear that they are not talented.
There was not a single black player in the media team. I want to repeat myself, to me all that had to do with race. We shouldn’t shy away of talking about these issues. Being politically correct does not help us going forward. This Cape Town is racist to the core. The sport in Cape Town is run on the basis of race.
This spectacle was a living proof of that. It exposed our true colours as people of this province. Many of you would say, there he goes again. Three blacks were included after a big cry from all the media platforms including Facebook pages.
My conclusion about race in sport is that we should endeavour to fight it. Those of us who are in sport should lead the way. But having said that, for as long as we have coaches from the 60s, this looks like a far-fetched dream.
We should all, coloured, white and black say in a squad of 20 players there cannot only be three Africans, Andile Ntluko, Manelisi Ralatse and Sthembiso Ngwenya. It is a disgrace not only to black people but it sends a message to the Palestinians that black Africans are not in support of them. This to me was horrible and embarrassing.
But the point I am making here is, if you think sport is a unifyer, you are in delulu land. You are deluded. Those who are involved and have played the sport are not with you on that. If you think Cape Town will ever change, think again. We are still in pre-1994. Sport administrators and coaches, let us eat humble pie and change. But for now, change is still far away.