Sport In South Africa
Sports in South Africa have a passionate following, although they remain largely divided along ethnic lines.
Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in South Africa, particularly amongst blacks who constitute the majority of the population. The national football team is nicknamed Bafana Bafana (meaning the boys, the boys). South Africa hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the first one hosted in Africa.
Cricket is the second most popular sport in South Africa, and is traditionally the sport of the Anglo-African and Indian South African communities, although it is now followed by members of all races. The national cricket team is nicknamed The Proteas.
Rugby union is also very popular, especially among persons of Afrikaner descent. The national rugby union team, The Springboks, have enjoyed considerable success since the early 20th Century, including two Rugby World Cup victories in 1995 & 2007.
Other popular sports include: boxing, hockey, tennis, golf, surfing, netball and running.
South Africa was absent from international sport for most of the apartheid era due to sanctions, but started competing globally after the country's white electorate voted in a referendum in favour of a negotiated settlement of the apartheid question. The South African government and SASCOC have been striving to improve – incrementally – the participation of the previously excluded majority in competitive sports (i.e. Blacks in rugby and Whites in association football), but so far with limited success, due to resistance on part of numerous federations.
Read more about Sport In South Africa: History, Athletics (Running), Australian Rules Football, Basketball, Canoeing, Chess, Cricket, Cycling, Golf, Mind Sports, Motor Sports, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Football, Sailing, Skydiving and Parachuting, Swimming, Tennis, Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts, Other Sports, See Also
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—Hettie V., South African white anti-apartheid activist and feminist. As quoted in Lives of Courage, ch. 21, by Diana E. H. Russell (1989)
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