Cricket victories, political struggles divide SA's psyche

A playbook of the challenges ahead and our courage to overcome these

- MUSHTAK PARKER

EVENTS in the last and coming few days encapsulate the current state of the South African nation and more accurately its psyche.

It represents a microcosm of what is good about the Rainbow Nation and what is rotten to its core. Perhaps most importantly, it gives us a semblance of a playbook of what the challenges are ahead, and our capacity, commitment and courage to overcome these.

Last week it was the update by President Cyril Ramaphosa on his National Dialogue and his summoning of a National Convention on the 15th of August to set the agenda for the initiative. The President two days later also launched the inaugural Africa Green Hydrogen Summit to unleash his government's plan to develop such an ecosystem.

The icing on the cake was last Saturday’s stunning 5-wicket victory over the much-fancied Aussies by our very own Proteas at the home of cricket, Lord’s in London, to clinch the ICC’s World Test Championship for the first time.

Led by the genteel Temba Bavuma with his plucky 66 and despite nursing a pulled hamstring and aided and abetted by a stunning 136 by opener Aiden Markram and a 10-wicket match haul by veteran fast bowler Kagiso Rabada, exemplified the very resilience of a team whose underdog status easily outmatched the chauvinism of an ‘invincible’ reigning champions.

Equally importantly, it symbolised the sheer chutzpah and resoluteness of a team batting not only for themselves but for the Rainbow Nation against all the odds, where sporting success is also transcended in terms of a feel-good factor beyond the playing field into the real lives of ordinary compatriots, who for so long have been clobbered by hapless politicians and clueless officials in collusion with a financial/business establishment whose driving raison detre seems to remain profit maximisation at any cost.