This book paints Rassie Erasmus’s leadership qualities for the Springbok a unifying force for a fractured nation

By Giyani Baloi
Title: Rassie: Stories of Life and Rugby
Author: Rassie Erusmas with David O’Sullivan
Johan Erasmus, who is well -known as Rassie Erasmus, was born on November 5, 1972 in a town called Dispatch in Cape town South Africa.

South Africa is one country with different racial groups, tribes, ethnicities, and languages who are found in different parts of the country, such as provinces, cities, regions and villages.

It is indeed a country of complexity and diversity. You will find that a particular race or tribe that speaks the same language would develop a certain subculture and dialect that is slightly distinctively theirs, and is different from the other group that speaks the same language as them but living in a different region. Rassie says that as much as he is an Afrikaner and speaks Afrikaans, his personality and passion for rugby was shaped by his community in Dispatch. He describes them as people who live together in communion and watch each other’s backs with love and care.

Since Rassie Erusmas’s book came out, I was just waiting to get money so that I could go to get my own copy. I was keen to know what makes him tick. Rassie is a trailblazing South African national rugby team (Springbok) head coach. He says he grew up living and breathing rugby from childhood, primary school, and in the South African army. He also played for the local, provincial, and national team Springbok before starting his coaching career.

Perhaps at this stage it is helpful to go back into history to get some context.

The Union of South Africa in 1910 was the coming together of sworn bitter settler enemies after the brutal Anglo Boer war (South African War) that left Afrikaners bruised. The Afrikaners are the descendants of the Dutch from Holland, and the English were the descendants of the Queen of England under the British Empire.

This bit of history is significant to take note of. It was the coming together of white South African settlers at the exclusions of the black indigenous people who were to later suffer all sorts of abuse, exploitation, and discrimination in the hands of their fellow white countrymen and women.

Now let us go into the architecture of sport in South Africa, just to paint a proper context of the sporting history and its evolution. The three major sports in South Africa are rugby, cricket, and soccer. Therefore, the sporting codes were also aligned in the country’s divisions. Rugby was predominantly Afrikaners, Cricket English, and later Soccer for the black South Africans.

After the demise of apartheid, South Africa became a constitutional democracy, and Nelson Mandela became the president in 1994 after spending 27 years in jail for leading the fight against Apartheid and resisting the system.

The biggest battle for the new political administration in South Africa was to bring all South Africans together. It was bringing together people who were divided in their living places on racial or tribal basis. They were divided in the sports, schools, toilets, transport, banks, etc. for a very long time.

But rugby the inherent Afrikaaner sport in South Africa became a glue which made the utopian dream of Nelson Mandela and others of seeing South Africans coming together as one people in one country look possible. It is quite ironic. As per wishes of our gods, the Springbok, South Africa’s rugby national team defeated their bitter rivals, The All Blacks of New Zealand in 1995 to lift the Webb Ellis Cup for the first time in Ellis Park stadium, Johannesburg. South Africans in every corner of the country became one in a frenzy of celebration of the rugby world cup victory. At least momentarily. But the seed of hope and belief that, indeed it is possible to have one country and one people was planted.

Granted South Africa continues to be a fractured unit project with a lot of pushing and shoving, back and forth. However South African Rugby is the most successful sport internationally, and it is the one sport that has contributed immensely into the unit project of South Africa.

Johan “Russie” Erusmas the current South African Rugby national team coach is not only one of the most successful coaches in world rugby today. He is a pathfinder in South Africa in the eyes of many, black and white. He did not only transform the South African rugby national team to reflect the diversity of the country, but he also appointed Siya Kolisi to become the captain of the team, the first black player to captain the Springbok in its history.

His approach is starting by developing rugby from the grass roots level in the township, so that the previously disfranchised black players can be monitored, supported to develop the right impetus to the level of the South African rugby team before throwing them in the first team. That way they will adjust to the standard of the rugby national team. Russie’s approach to transformation in South African sport is a masterstroke. It has proved that we are stronger together than separate and scrumming against each other. You can call him a junior Mandela, if you like in acknowledgement of the Springbok’s unifying power under his able leadership.