Is it important for this
country to become more competitive on the world stage of sport?
By Natasha Chewe Mulenga
Sport is
an important part of everyday life. We see this through big events such as the
Olympics and Paralympics just to mention a few. Sport can be traced back to a
time before Christ as it was considered recreational and entertainment.
Sport
comes not only in different forms but is practiced differently in all areas of
the world and in the midst of this, comes the inevitable, power, media and
Society. These three often shape sport and can also distort its meaning through
targeting sensitive issues such personal life. Many sportsmen and women have
been built and destroyed by these three.
It is
important to analyze sport in the worldview yet continental view as development
stages differ. From sponsorship, rules to sometimes political issues, it is
important to see the view of one’s individual country to ever understand the
worldview.
In this
article I chose to focus on South African sport, the challenges behind sporting
in Africa can be great as most money is fueled into visible assets. The
apartheid Era as well, placed a lot of strain on sport amongst other things,
the type recreational works done by both races differed and could lead to why
some sport has a lower fan base in comparison to others. In 1994, being independent,
south African had a new beginning to re shape every aspect of the nation, sport
inclusive.
It is
safe to say today, South African sport has grown and there is more interest
taken by the public and media. It is important to introduce the two dominant
sports in the South African sphere which is Football and Cricket. Secondly some
issues faced in these sports, media take on the sports scene in South Africa
and finally introduce the South African sporting committee as the ruling body
of sport and what it does for sport.
For a
budgetary analysis, the South African government spent 8 million rands on the
Paralympic participants. Yet the United States of America, spent a hundred and
six million rand, one would question the quality of performance that therefore
is portrayed amongst athletes. Does the South African scene need more income to
enhance the performance in sport, or is it simply an issue of who is in
authority and who is hired to train the teams.
It is
safe to state that south African has a bright future as there are a large
number of competitors and events in which it has participated in. with a large
fan base and support from other African nations, south Africa seems to steadily
be on its way to dominating sports in southern Africa respectively. In the Mid
90s, Political theorist Robert Putnam constructed a term Social capital that
simply entailed that it referred to the links between people. In this, it is
clear that sport can create unity even after an era of darkness a country might
have gone through.
After the
Olympics and Paralympics, it was observed that there was interest in sports
from the society as fans gathered by the international airport to see their
athletes return. All in all, it is important for a state like South Africa to
compete internationally as this helps bridge the gap within it socially, politically
and economically. Sport, like no other tends to mend what is broken and as far
as South Africa is concerned all seems brighter against the odds.
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External links
http://www.safarinow.com/cms/sport-in-south-africa/irie.aspx
Safari Now
http://www.srsa.gov.za/
The Department of Sport and recreation South Africa
http://www.southafrica.info/about/sport/
South Africa.Info
http://www.sportanddev.org/en/learnmore/sport_and_peace_building/the_role_of_sport_in_peace_building/
Sport and Development.org
http://theafricanfile.com/politicshistory/sports-diplomacy-and-apartheid-south-africa/
The African File.
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