WhizzKids cant wait for kick off Nigeria vs. South Korea

“Sport has a role to play in uniting countries, because it speaks a language and has ideals beyond the reach of politicians” said by Nelson Mandela after the South African rugby World Cup victory in 1995. During the apartheid years, sport was mainly the domain of the white minority and there is no doubt that the Apartheid divided the country, but like Nelson Mandela said through sports we can break barriers of race, class and gender.

With the demise of apartheid, South Africa constructed a national sport structure, but like everybody knows development needs time!According to that it is not surprising that it is still difficult for the black community to gain access to sport facilities. All too often it is a problem of mobility. A large number of black Africans live in rural areas with no, or only shabby sport facilities. Quite a few people call the rough grounds in the townships euphemistically a “pitch”. Beside the bad or nonexistent resources in the disadvantaged communities the gender inequality in sport is a huge problem. At the moment the sad reality is that women are under-represented in sport, and black women are the least involved. The rate of black South African woman who do sports is shocking, if you keep in mind that black woman account for 80 % of the female population in South Africa, but only 10,8 % taking exercises! This development is rooted with the African culture and moreover with the traditional South African woman role model, which sees woman more in charge of the work at home.

But in general you can say South Africa is a crazy sport nation. The most popular spectator sports are football, rugby and cricket. The South African national team “Bafana Bafana” returned to the world stage in 1992, after years of banned out from FIFA due to the apartheid system. Already a few years later “Bafana Bafana” qualified for the FIFA World Cup in 1998 and 2002. By the way “Bafana Bafana” is Zulu and means “our boys”.Beside cricket and football, rugby is also a national South African sport. The “Springboks” are counted among the best teams in the world.

I think South Africa already did a big step and sport for all can become reality! Especially the FIFA World Cup 2010 was a huge “stepping stone” for the development of the country and I am convinced that programs like WhizzKids United help to make a change! There is a reason why WhizzKids United sticks up for gender equality and teaches HIV/AIDS education and Life Skills through the medium of football!To come back to the Nelson Mandela quotation from the beginning, the FIFA World Cup in South Africa showed me mainly this: Race and skin colour no longer have a meaning in sport. South Africa as one nation shared and celebrated this colourful football spectacle with the world. Thank you for being such a wonderful host!