When the Rainbow wore white

On May 10, 1994, Nelson Mandela skipped his own inauguration parties. Instead, he sat among a largely Black crowd at Ellis Park, watching South Africa play Zambia in football. "I wanted our people to know how much I appreciated the sacrifices made by our athletes during the boycott," he said.

- KUMAR ABISHEK

On May 10, 1994, Nelson Mandela skipped his own inauguration parties. Instead, he sat among a largely Black crowd at Ellis Park, watching South Africa play Zambia in football. "I wanted our people to know how much I appreciated the sacrifices made by our athletes during the boycott," he said. A year later, at the same stadium, he walked onto a rugby pitch wearing a Springbok jersey — an apartheid-era symbol — and handed the World Cup to a stunned Francois Pienaar.

It was a gesture loaded with grace, timing, and vision. Mandela knew: In a country broken by race and memory, sport wasn't a sideshow. It was where the nation could be remade. Nowhere was that tested more than in cricket.

Which is why South Africa's 2025 World Test Championship victory wasn't just overdue. It was transformative. Not because the "chokers" finally won — but because they did so as themselves. In full colour.

When Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram stitched together their 147-run partnership at Lord's, the weight was more than scoreboard pressure. Bavuma, South Africa's first Black African Test captain, had carried years of coded whispers and overt scrutiny. A "transformation pick," some said. But he stayed. He endured.

Limping to the crease, shoulders squared, he walked like he belonged. He walked for many who never could.