EDITORIAL | Government’s latest lazy misstep will be played out in front of the world

A few days ago, President Cyril Ramaphosa honoured athletes who flew the SA flag high in the Special Olympics World Games in Germany in June and who returned with 22 gold, 20 silver and seven bronze medals.

After hosting them at the Union Buildings, Ramaphosa released a statement saying: “Our athletes want to be heard and they demand inclusion, respect and equal opportunities. They declare that they are here to show the world their talents and abilities. They deserve nothing else but our unwavering support.”

Quite apt.

Just days later, Mark Alexander, SA Rugby president, cautioned: “It will be a sad day if the Springboks win the World Cup without the South African flag.” This was after the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) warned South Africa and Bermuda, through their respective anti-doping agencies, teams representing these two countries will not be able to hoist their flags when taking part in international tournaments if these countries fail to pass anti-doping legislation by October 14.

“We have this problem because our government failed to have new legislation promulgated. That is where we are. It’s a disgrace. It is an embarrassment for our country. They were issued notice well in advance. This is not a debatable thing. You can’t change things. You have to put it in your legislation. This was done by Wada years ago. We are supposed to conform to Wada’s requirements. We failed to change the legislation to include the changes,” said Alexander.

Ramaphosa said these athletes ‘deserve nothing else but our unwavering support’. Nothing demonstrates support better than making sure officialdom does not sabotage our athletes on the world stage.

So much is expected of our athletes. The Springboks, now focused on defending the Rugby World Cup, face the possible ignominy of taking to the field in the knockout stages at the Stade de France without the SA flag being hoisted. Further, the Cricket World Cup started on Thursday and the Proteas will fly the SA flag on Saturday morning when they lock horns with Sri Lanka in Delhi.

It will be disgraceful if they and the Boks will not be allowed to finish their world cup campaigns with the SA flag still flying.The department of sport, supported by the SA Institute for Drug-free Sport (Saids), South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, should have ensured our legislators paid attention to this. Alarm bells should have gone off much earlier.

It’s not as if effecting changes to legislation is something so complex that hasn’t been done. When it’s an important for the ruling ANC, it gets done quickly — even under the leadership of one of the worst to lead us, former president Jacob Zuma. We saw this when the law needed to be changed to kill off the Scorpions, considered a bane for corrupt politicians and civil servants, to make way for the Hawks.

It’s not as if our country has objections to anti-doping legislation. The changes were not effected because it has become quite a slog to get government and the legislature to do basic things. We know this because fixing potholes, supplying electricity and water, ensuring business is supported to help create jobs seem, on the surface, tasks too impossible to accomplish. What more of changing legislation to allow our athletes to perform undistracted? We have less than two weeks to ensure the changes are done.

When Ramaphosa says our “athletes ... demand inclusion, respect and equal opportunities”, we must hoist a mirror to him and say it is his government that must show respect to our athletes by doing its part. Our athletes are denied “equal opportunities” to which he refers if they must compete without their nation’s flags hoisted just like their competitors. Ramaphosa said these athletes “deserve nothing else but our unwavering support”. Nothing demonstrates support better than making sure officialdom does not sabotage our athletes on the world stage.

It’s one thing to disappoint ourselves in our little corner of the world, to deny ourselves access to electricity and to come up with warped ideas like water shifting because of incompetence. But it’s quite a different game when such incompetence must play itself out on international stages. That, indeed, is a disgrace.