South Africa National Rugby Union Team - Controversy Over The Emblem

Controversy Over The Emblem

Since the demise of apartheid the ruling African National Congress has wanted to replace the Springbok across all national teams, as emblem of the racially segregated sporting codes, with a neutral symbol that would represent a decisive break with a repressive past. The king protea as South Africa's national flower was chosen for this purpose, so that the national cricket team became known as the Proteas, for example. A similar change was envisioned for the national rugby squad's springbok emblem. Paul Roos's team had first introduced the Springbok in 1906, and it had promoted a measure of unity among white English and Afrikaans-speaking players after the two Anglo-Boer Wars of the late 19th century.

The Springbok was regarded as representing both the exclusion of players who were not designated white under apartheid legislation and, by extension, of apartheid itself. Although the Springbok was adopted briefly by the first coloured national rugby team in 1939 and by their first black counterparts in 1950, it became exclusively associated with segregated sporting codes afterwards. South African rugby officials in particular, and the national rugby team itself, have an historical association with racism from 1906 on. The first rugby Springboks initially refused to play against a Devon side that included Jimmy Peters, the first black player to represent England. Legendary official, national coach, and Springbok scrumhalf Danie Craven had acquiesced with government officials who had demanded that Māori players be excluded from visiting All Black teams. Craven had also indicated that the Springbok was exclusively tied to the white identity of the national rugby team.

As a result of political pressure the national rugby team jersey from 1992 on featured a king protea alongside the springbok. As portrayed in the film Invictus, pressure to replace the Springbok as emblem for the rugby team came to a head in 1994, just before the Rugby World Cup that would take place in South Africa. As a result of Nelson Mandela's direct interference, the ANC's executive decided not to do away with the emblem at the time, but to reappropriate it. After the national team won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, black rugby pioneer Dan Qeqe said that "The Springboks play for all of us".

In March 2004 the South African Sports Commission ratified a decision that the protea be the official rugby emblem on blazers and caps, with the concession that the springbok could remain on the team jersey. And in November 2007 the ANC's special conference at Polokwane again endorsed the need for a single symbol for all sporting codes. While detractors like Qondisa Ngwenya foresaw a loss of revenue from dumping the springbok emblem, others like Cheeky Watson urged the need for an alternative, unifying symbol.