TOM EATON | Let’s all thank Fikile Mbalula, the unwitting Springbok motivator

It’s shamefully easy to poke fun at Fikile Mbalula. There are fish in barrels that are harder to hit, mainly because most fish in most barrels are substantially more skilled at being politicians than Mbalula is. But as Fiks gets pilloried again for his latest pratfall, I would appeal to you to go easy on him.

You probably missed it, because it was so small and so petty, but I suppose small and petty are Mbalula’s wheelhouse these days, so here we are.

On Wednesday, as hundreds of thousands of South African sports fans discussed last weekend’s World Cup win, one of them who goes by Madiba waseQamata on X (formerly Twitter) wrote: “Those who followed rugby will know the struggles black players faced, being called quota players. But arrival of Rassie Erasmus made sure that if you are good enough you get selected regardless of the colour of your skin. He deserves all the recognition.”

I think it’s fair to say that Mbalula has contributed more than his fair share of those disappointments, griefs, frustrations and outrages to the nation; that he has actively made this country more difficult to live in for many of its citizens.

It was a fair point, made briefly and clearly, but made, I would respectfully suggest, in relative obscurity. “Madiba waseQamata”, while clearly a fan of South Africans sports teams, is not a sports journalist or a public figure. He is followed by 1,400 people on the platform.

That evening, however, he was being read by a 1,401st person; a person for whom wealth and fame and power are not enough; a person who craves validation and applause the way a columnist on deadline craves a garage pie. And so it came to pass that, instead of keeping his dignity intact and maintaining his ministerial aloofness, Fikile Mbalula broadcast his neediness all over X in a tweet for the ages.

“Its not Rassie who did away with quotas its me,” the political head of the ANC wrote with his trademark cavalier disregard for the basics of spelling and syntax, “bcos they were counter productive, We entrenched the transformation charter hence u see Siya been the captain. But i understand your point and fully agree about your assertion about Rassie.”

Now, Cyril Ramaphosa standing in the Springboks’ reflected glory is one thing, but for Mbalula — the almost perfect embodiment of the multi-decade dumpster fire that is the ANC — to bustle into people’s tweets claiming credit like this is quite another, and many of his compatriots told him so in short, concise replies.

But if you’ll humour me for a moment, I’d like to come to Mbaks’ defence on one particular point.

Speaking to the press immediately after the World Cup win on the weekend, Siya Kolisi said that people who don’t live in South Africa couldn’t fully understand what the win means to the nation, explaining that “our country goes through such a lot”.

It is these relentless setbacks, the captain implied — these disappointments, griefs, frustrations and outrages — that made the win all the sweeter and all the more important.

Now, there are many things worse than Fikile Mbalula. He is not responsible for the wreckage of apartheid that the ANC inherited in 1994, or many of the disasters that his party has ushered in since then.

Credit, however, should go where it is due; and I think it’s fair to say that Mbalula has contributed more than his fair share of those disappointments, griefs, frustrations and outrages to the nation; that he has actively made this country more difficult to live in for many of its citizens.

In other words, there is a case to be made that Mbalula is an integral part of that “such a lot” that our country endures, the “such a lot” that inspired Siya Kolisi and his team, the “such a lot” that made the victory feel so sweet.

Yes, you can say what you want about Mbalula, but this week, instead of mocking his desperate lunge at affirmation, perhaps take a moment to acknowledge everything he has done to motivate the Springboks and the nation, and then, with deep appreciation, say: thank you, Mbaks, for giving them something to play for, and making it all mean so much more ...