Zapiro's mockery of Bafana Bafana not necessary

So Zapiro’s latest published cartoon (a re-run from December 2009) presents Bafana Bafana as a pack of dwarves among the giants in the upcoming Fifa World Cup. In email conversations with friends (whose sports knowledge is way ahead of mine) they regard Zapiro’s humiliating presentation of Bafana Bafana as spot on. Bafana Bafana is only ranked a dismal 90^th in the Fifa rankings and has only once defeated another country in the Fifa World Cup. South Africa has not made it beyond the group stages in the last two Fifa World Cup appearances. And blah di blah di blah.

That did not stop me from finding the cartoon sad and a hollow mockery. To refer to the old rules of fair play, you should not carry on kicking a man when he is already down on the ground. I suppose not being blinded by all the convincing statistics that show up Bafana Bafana as mere toddlers on the Fifa stage among the giants is part of my annoyance with the cartoon.

Imagine presenting the rugby Springboks like that? Unthinkable. The Bokke are part of the nation’s pride. Yeah, I know that the Bokke, unlike the football team, are world giants, and right now South Africa in the rugby world is the giant among giants as the current World Cup and Tri-Nations title-holders. And in the World Cup to be hosted in New Zealand next year, I hope it will be the Bokke and the All Blacks in the finals, with the men in green and gold winning after one helluva game. The Kiwis deserve to get into the finals on their home ground after their poor showing in the last World Cup (a poor performance for the All Blacks anyway). But then I want my favourite team to win, and I will be wearing my bok cap and jersey with pride at any of their games I have the good fortune of seeing at the stadiums.

But I digress. Bafana Bafana is South Africa’s team just as much as the Bokke. Imagine trying to go out onto the Fifa football field when your own nation’s media has already made scorning jokes about you in advance? That does not do much for your morale. I suppose we can’t expect too much of Bafana Bafana because of all those statistics. But I fail to see why we should not get behind our men, roar encouragement and honour them, FFS, even though they are going out against all odds — including a poor and gleeful opinion in the nation’s media, as evinced by Zapiro’s cartoon, perhaps timeously re-published to rub it in.