DAVID ISAACSON | If only we could apply a form of load-shedding to sport

The good news was that there was no load-shedding on Sunday, but the flip side was that cricket fans were able to watch the Proteas crash out of the T20 World Cup at the hands of Holland. 

It was a moment made even more raw given the sub-par performance by the Boks against Ireland the previous night. 

And then the Blitzboks lost. And the SA Fast5 netball team lost to Australia in the World Series final, but at least they clinched a silver medal. 

By the time load-shedding resumed again on Monday we were already depressed. 

The rugby defeat wasn’t a train smash because I really thought Siya Kolisi’s men let themselves down against a side that made better use of fewer opportunities. 

Ireland may be world No. 1 and playing on home ground blah blah, but the Boks tossed this one away more than they were beaten. For starters they could pick a trusted place-kicker. A few tweaks here and there and, hopefully, they’ll be OK. 

But the cricket team is another matter altogether. They were badly off-colour, and the worst part of it was that skipper Temba Bavuma took the brunt of it from social media, critics calling him a quota player. 

Perhaps he’s just a captain struggling to find form with the bat? Or maybe he’s just not cut out for T20 cricket? I’m leaning towards the latter.

But is that his fault? 

If the responsibility were to be on captains to drop themselves when they were not up to scratch, then John Smit should have ruled himself out of the 2011 Rugby World Cup and Jean de Villiers out of the 2015 edition. Both were past their best.

Right now government is pushing quotas and is also ignoring the gaping lack of a national sports plan, which is going to hurt this nation terribly in the long run. It’s a crisis in the making. 

But the Proteas’ defeat to Holland can’t be pinned solely on Bavuma or the colour of his skin. Yes, Cricket SA (CSA) have a quota policy, albeit unofficial, that is basically forced by government. 

And that’s where any criticism should be directed. 

The wrong person is being held to account, and that suits the suits and other executives because too many of them are not accountable.

Lack of accountability is a South African problem.  

So how to change it? Give the people power.

Politically, the constitution should be amended so all elected officials like parliamentarians and city councillors must be independents serving constituencies. 

Political parties and their election lists can go take a jump in a fire pool. 

Political parties can become lobby groups, and if members of parties want to stand, that’s fine, but good luck to them doing so against community-minded candidates. 

Equally, the president should be voted for directly by the people, with all of them listing their proposed cabinets and policies. 

All elected officials should be able to be recalled by votes of no confidence that can be proposed by ordinary citizens on electronic voting systems, which should be perfectly feasible in this age of technology. We should be able to vote on our phones.  

So your local MP is blocking a vote of no confidence against Jacob Zuma or some other crook? No problem.  

Ms Dlamini at 28 Main Road accesses the electoral system online and inputs a proposal for a vote of no confidence in her MP, Mr Fatcat. If a stipulated number of her fellow voters in that constituency second the motion within a stipulated time period, it gets put to the vote and if her motion wins, a month later Mr Fatcat is standing with a begging bowl at his local robot or UIF offices or Nkandla or wherever. Nobody really cares because he’s gone.

So how could this apply to sport? 

Well, for a start, sport policies are being decided by politicians. 

Right now government is pushing quotas and also ignoring the gaping lack of a national sports plan, which is going to hurt this nation terribly in the long run. It’s a crisis in the making. 

But more directly, a revamp of sports federation constitutions could give athletes a lot more power. 

Now club executives vote for provincial executives who vote for national executives, and along the way, it’s not unusual for favours to be promised — an overseas trip here or a committee position there. 

But athletes generally have no say in this system. 

So maybe one can keep this structure (I’m open to any good suggestions, by the way), but let’s throw a joker into the pack where athletes red-card their own administrators. 

So if athletes decide they don’t like their president or CEO or nationally appointed coach or whatever office-bearer — for a legitimate reason, naturally — they should be allowed to propose a vote of no confidence, and if enough athletes second it, it should go to a ballot comprising only athletes.

It would operate exactly like it would for any public official, except this time the block deciding the no confidence vote is different to the block that elected the official. 

Sport has attracted no shortage of bullies and miscreants to mahogany row, and why shouldn’t they be subject to a system of oversight where they could be deposed overnight? 

I propose we call it load-shedding, because political and sports voters could literally shed deadwood and bad apples and such. Except this time the people would have power.