Koonyaditse: The Politics of South African Footbal

Alpheus Koonyaditse

• Publisher: African Perspectives Publishing
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780981439822
• eBook ISBN: 9781990962509
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: African History
• Index: History

The Politics of South African Football is the story of people whose vehement resistance and declaration that there could be ëno normal sport in an abnormal societyí proved to be a powerful antidote to the apartheid governmentís assurances that ëall was wellí. Oshebeng Alphie Koonyaditse gives an inspiring account of the event-filled journey that led to that memorable Saturday of May 15, 2004. For the first time in World Cup history South Africa, and indeed Africa, won the right to host the nations of the world at the FIFA World Cup in 2010. Yet, South African football history began long before that, and in fact goes back to before the formation of FIFA in 1904.

chapter one

Every South African will no doubt remember the Saturday of May 15, 2004. They should: for it was arguably the most glorious day yet in the history of this country’s football. It followed the national disappointment of four years earlier, when after much anticipation, Germany was voted host for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. This time around it was different. South Africa won the three-way race to host the 2010 tournament. Not only was this momentous for South Africa, it was also a landmark event as it would be the first time in 80 years of World Cup history that the finals would be held on the African continent.

When the result of the vote was announced, Nelson Mandela wept tears of joy and said he felt “like a young man of 15.” But the roots of South African football went back much further, to before the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) was formed in 1904.

In 1909 South Africa became the first country outside of Europe to become a FIFA member – before Argentina and Chile in 1912, and the United States in 1913. Prior to that, FIFA had only seven member countries: France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. South Africa was already active on the international football stage, touring Great Britain and other European countries, as well as Australia, New Zealand and South America, although it was not until much later that they played against other African nations. The first recorded football matches in South Africa were in 1862 – seventeen months before the October 1863 foundation of the Football Association in England: an event usually regarded as the birth of modern football.

The first recorded match was played during the last week of May 1862; the Eastern Province Herald (Port Elizabeth) having announced on May 23 that it would be played “Saturday next in front of the Grey Institute at 3 o’clock.” The second match was between soldiers and employees of the British colonial administration on August 23, 1862.¹ That the “old game of football”, as the Port Elizabeth newspaper the Eastern Province Herald put it in 1862, was brought to South Africa by the British (as it was everywhere else) is beyond dispute.

Soon enough, football clubs sprang into existence all over the country. The first one was Pietermaritzburg County, reportedly founded in 1879. This was followed by the Natal Football Association in 1882 and Pioneers FC in Cape Town in 1890. Pietermaritzburg County, based in the town of Pietermaritzburg (north of Durban in present-day KwaZulu-Natal), first played against British military selections and drew its players solely from European immigrants. The league was played under the auspices of the Natal Football Association and comprised only four clubs: Pietermaritzburg County, Natal Wasps, Durban Alpha and Umgeni Stars.

Football was also being played elsewhere in South Africa. In Johannesburg, the Transvaal Football Association was formed in 1889, and the main championship was the Transvaal Challenge Cup. The early winners were Wanderers Wasps in 1889 with Rangers prevailing in 1890, 1892 to 1894, and 1896. The likely reason for the formation of a number of football associations was that South Africa was comprised of various colonial and other territories and had not yet been unified into a single political entity. The coastal area was ruled by the British and most of the interior by Dutch settlers – known as “Boers”.²

While the British ruled Natal and the Western and Eastern Cape provinces, the Boers, following a long history of wars over land ownership, had established their own republics: the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic. The British annexed the Transvaal Republic in 1877, but continued Boer resistance led to a British withdrawal in 1881.

The British had seized the Cape of Good Hope more than half a century earlier in 1806, causing many of the Dutch settlers to trek north to establish their two independent republics. The discovery of diamonds in 1867 and of gold in 1886, spurred a new wave of primarily European immigration and intensified subjugation of the native Africans. The Boers resisted British encroachment on the mineral rich republics but were eventually defeated in the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). A peace of sorts was achieved with the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging³ on May 31, 1902, whereby the two Boer republics acknowledged British sovereignty while the British committed themselves to reconstructing the areas under their control. The British at that time already had plans to unify the country, and eventually, in 1909, the South Africa Act created a single union from the Boer republics and the British colonial territories. The Union of South Africa, comprised of four provinces – the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State – had come into being. Under the provisions of the South Africa Act, the Union remained British territory, but with home rule for Afrikaners within the former Boer republics. In those areas, the deal firmly closed out any political participation by black South Africans, whereas in the Cape there was a qualified franchise which included some people who were not officially considered white. Gaining British Dominion status gave the Union of South Africa international standing and put it on a par with Canada, Australia and New Zealand – three other British dominions and allies.

The Natives’ Land Act of 1913 was the first...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• About the Author
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Chapter One
• Chapter Two
• Chapter Three
• Chapter Four
• Chapter Five
• Chapter Six
• Chapter Seven
• Chapter Eight
• Chapter Nine
• Chapter Ten
• Chapter Eleven
• Chapter Twelve
• Chapter Thirteen
• Chapter Fourteen
• Chapter Fifteen
• Chapter Sixteen
• Chapter Seventeen
• Chapter Eighteen
• Chapter Nineteen
• Chapter Twenty
• Chapter Twenty-One
• Chapter Twenty-Two
• Trivia Quiz
• References