After Dricus du Plessis won his UFC middleweight fight last weekend, many South Africans insisted that “nou weet hulle wat ons weet”. I still don’t know what we’re supposed to know, but I do know that Du Plessis’ widely publicised condemnation of the ANC has revealed something interesting about our beliefs around politics and sport.
To be clear, not only do I not know what we’re supposed to know, I also know practically nothing about the Ultimate Fighting Championship, except that, contrary to its name, it doesn’t actually involve murdering anyone with tridents or rusty swords, as was the case in the real Ultimate Fighting Championship in Rome 2,000 years ago.
I also didn’t know very much about Sean Strickland, the man Du Plessis beat on points on Sunday. Before the fight, I discovered that he does a busy trade demanding that women be deprived of the right to vote and accusing gay people of destroying society, but since I don’t know the man — thank God — I can’t tell you whether he’s genuinely a boring little bigot or just a cynical skidmark playing the role to attract the nastiest elements of the UFC fan base.
In other words, I am absolutely not qualified to have an opinion on the fight.
What interested me, however, was the surge of support for Du Plessis in South Africa after he started throwing punches at the ANC, declaring that our government is the worst and most corrupt in the world.
Of course, this will come as a huge relief to the governments of countries like Russia, Iran, Colombia and Zimbabwe, who can now ignore global consensus that they are undisputed heavyweight champions of dysfunction and corruption, and instead carve Du Plessis’ remarks onto statues around their capitals, under the legend: AT LEAST WE’RE NOT THE WORST.
But I digress.
My point is that I learnt something new this week, in scores of comments under social media posts and news reports about Du Plessis and his criticism of the ANC.
I learnt that when South Africans angrily tell us that politics should stay out of sport, what they really mean is that politics they disagree with should stay out of sport.
Politics they agree with, well, that’s more than welcome in sport.
For what it’s worth, I believe that the call to keep politics out of sport is naive. Politics, and the economics it dictates, influences every single aspect of modern sport. All that is up for debate is the extent to which politicians insert themselves into the games we enjoy.
I also agree with the spirit of Du Plessis’ accusation, even if his facts are wonky. The ANC is an awful government.
But perhaps, as we congratulate Du Plessis for his win, and applaud him for sticking it to the ANC, we might want to ask ourselves: what, exactly, do we believe about politics and sport? Because right now some of those beliefs are looking as shaky as Sean Strickland’s masculinity.
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