While the majority of South Africans will be supporting the Springboks in the Rugby World Cup final on Saturday, many within the coloured community of Gqeberha will be supporting the rival team, New Zealand’s All Blacks. All Blacks support in South Africa dates to the anti-apartheid struggle, when the Springboks were seen as a symbol of white rule.
For 90 years Springbok selectors chose only white players, with black and mixed-race athletes, known as coloured under the apartheid system, in separate leagues with no international participation.
Tweet from Lerato Fekisi:
While the majority of South Africans will be supporting the Springboks on the final on Saturday, within the coloured community in Gqeberha, there is a growing number of South Africans who are staunch All Black supporters. #sabcnews pic.twitter.com/Rnyx07JWXc
— Lerato Fekisi (@LThipa) October 25, 2023
Historian Collin Abrahams says that seeing the Springboks getting beaten Pre-94 was a strike back at the system of oppression affecting their everyday lives.
“The Group Areas Act still resounds in so many peoples minds and hearts. They have lost so much and they were never compensated enough. So, we need to look at governments where you know, so called coloured people have said that in the past they were never white enough. And now they are not black enough.”
VIDEO | All Blacks support still strong:
While the majority of South Africans will be supporting the Springboks on the final on Saturday, within the coloured community in Gqeberha, there is a growing number of South Africans who are staunch All Black supporters. #sabcnews pic.twitter.com/Rnyx07JWXc
— Lerato Fekisi (@LThipa) October 25, 2023
