Former South African President F.W. de Klerk Talks About Demographic Representation In Sports

FWdKF: Statement from the FW de Klerk Foundation on demographic representivity in sport (23/06/2010)

STATEMENTS
Published 23 Jun 2010

Article by: Creamer Media Reporter 1 Comments



According to a report in Die Burger ("Afrikaners can't play for Bafana," 22/06/2010) Mr. Floyd Shivambu, ANC Youth League spokesperson, has commented on whether or not our national soccer team, Bafana, should be subject to demographic representivity. Asked what he had to say to Afrikaners who are unhappy about Bafana "not being representative of the country as a whole," Shivambu answered: "They are crazy. Totally." He asked if anyone has ever seen an "Afrikaner who can be picked to play for Bafana".
Mr. Shivambu has a point: teams should be picked on merit and not on race. Accordingly, it is also completely acceptable if t the great majority of the French soccer team - or the American athletics team - is not demographically representative of their particular countries.
Mr. Shivambu is correct for three reasons. In the first place the argument for demographic representivity is illogical. The answer to the question of who should play for Bafana is not to be found in the demographics of the population of the country, but in Bafana's requirements as a soccer team. Bafana requires a soccer team that can win matches and one day, perhaps, give South Africa a chance of winning the World Cup.
This principle applies equally to the greater soccer field of South Africa. Elections to public office and appointments to private and public posts should be based on merit and not race. People in the private sector should be free to form associations and partnerships with whomever they like as long as there is no discrimination with regard to appointments and promotions.
In the second place demographic representivity is impossible. It lies in a very fundamental way outside the bounds of what nature's laws allow - and even if those laws could be bent then all the computers in the world would not be able to solve the mathematical problems involved.
If proponents of demographic representivity were to be consistent, half of Bafana should be composed of women, one-and-a-half of the players should be older than sixty, two-and-a-third players should be Zulu and a couple of them might have to change their religion. People should not be reduced to percentages and have their futures determined accordingly. The world is too complex to achieve the required mix of skills, qualifications and experience within the rigid requirements of "demographically representative". Even so, South Africa's racial planners try at every opportunity - especially in the civil service - to achieve this. This can be observed, for example, when they refuse to fill key positions if the appointment is not in line with their demographic representivity-ideology.
In the third place demographic representivity goes directly against the Constitution, which prohibits unfair discrimination on the grounds of race, sex and language. The only discrimination that is fair is steps that promote equality through the advancement of people disadvantaged by unfair discrimination. The experience of the past sixteen years has shown that appointment of people based on race, instead of merit, has done very little to promote equality for the great majority of the disadvantaged. On the contrary, it has often exacerbated the problem of inequality. A central goal of the Constitution is to move away from a system of racial discrimination to a system based on non-racialism and the promotion of equality and human dignity. Central to the Constitution is, thus, the principle of justice rather than race - where people can be judged as individuals on their fitness for what needs to be done and not as members of demographically determined categories. As Martin Luther King put it: people should be judged by the content of their character - and not the colour of their skin.
To want a soccer team that reflects the demography of the country is illogic, impossible and against the Constitution. It is a recipe to lose the real world games 100 to 0. To demand demographic representivity in South Africa - as Mr. Shivambu points out - is crazy.