HEYNEKE MEYER’S BRINGING BACK MERIT SELECTION
In the year’s following South Africa’s first democratic election the sporting landscape and average sports fan in South Africa became accustomed to a new term that became prevalent due to the changing political atmosphere in the land.
The term “Merit Selection” was one that made athletes of colour cringe, cause coaches to wine and was often spoken amongst fans in hushed whispers. For the uninitiated, a merit selection was the sporting equivalent to the commercial concept of affirmative action whereby a sporting player or coach of colour who had equal or near equal ability and qualifications to their whiter counterpart was to be selected and/or preferred ahead of the whiter contemporary.
Just as with affirmative action, the concept of merit selection received waves of criticism from the whiter parts of South Africa as its implementation meant that whiter players would be ousted if a player of colour had equal or near equal ability in the specific field of sport. For most part the outrage and attitudes of whiter South Africans was an exaggeration of how the process of both merit selection and affirmative action was implemented as most workplaces and sporting arenas were not whitewashed, but rather sporting teams became sprinkled with one or two players of colour as the obvious impact of the apartheid era meant that sportspersons or businessmen of colour with equal or near qualifications and developed ability were a rare bread.
Amongst South African persons of colour, both the concepts of merit selection and affirmative action, though attempting to promote diversity and integration on the sports field and in the business arena, were viewed in a negative light. This negative view of these concepts was grounded on the fact that suitably qualified businessmen and proven sportspersons of colour were viewed by the whiter colleagues as being placed into a specific working or sporting role because of the colour of their skin rather than their suitable qualification and proven ability. This view was promoted by the South African media which at the time had whiter South Africans in senior positions. The impact of these two concepts on the South African businessman and sportsperson of colour was that these athletes and individuals had to do more and be better than an average person in the same position in order to prove that their selection and/or appointment was based on their more than suitable qualifications and proven ability, rather than simply due to the colour of their skin.
Fortunately as South Africa has grown as a fledging democracy and integration though slight has occurred in all facets of daily life, the terms of affirmative action and merit selection have to a large extent become irrelevant as both on the sporting field and in the business world it has become apparent to white South Africans that people of colour can, if given the opportunity, do the same job and sometimes even better than a whiter South African. In the sporting arena individuals like Josia Thungwane, Gibbs, Radebe, McCarthy, Amla, Habana, Chester Williams, and many, many others are indicators of this very rarely admitted fact.
So why is Heyneke Meyer bringing merit selection back at a time when it does not appear to be needed in the South African sporting arena with superstar sportspersons of colour producing brilliant results on a consistent basis???
Well.... the merit selection policy adopted by Heyneke Meyer is not the same in nature adopted previously.
In Heyneke Meyer’s merit selection system, there are two overwhelming principles:
1. If Meyer has coached the player before then the player will be selected ahead of an equal or better player;
2. If the player’s surname has an Afrikaans twang to it, then the player will be selected ahead of an equal or better player.
Okay, in seriousness the second principle is said more tongue in cheek and in support of the omission of Western Cape players such as Aplon, Grant and other players blessed with an un-Afrikaans surname, but the first principle is a fact and has been admitted as such by Meyer who has publicly stated that he will be giving preference to players he knows are comfortable with his style of coaching. This begs the question as to how Meyer will know if a player is comfortable in his system if he has not coached him previously.
The irony in Meyer’s merit selection is that players are not being selected to represent their country due to their proven superior ability over other players, because of a political policy to advance integration or transformation. No, Meyer has adopted this line of thinking because its one that makes him comfortable as he will be able to live a vacuum of players that have nothing but admiration for the only South African coach to win the Super 12-13-14-15-16 competition.
The adoption of this policy by Meyer has also had another “knock-on” effect in that Meyer has revealed to be a hypocrite in the strictest sense of the word. When he was introduced as Springbok coach, Meyer stated that he wanted to bring value back to the green and gold jersey by not awarding caps to a large majority of players and while this line of thought hits all the right notes, it reveals Meyer to be a hypocrite in that how does one bring greater value to the Springbok jersey by deliberately selecting players that you know in preference over players with equal and better ability??? To represent one’s country on any sporting field is an honour which indicates that an individual is the best in his or her country at the given sport. How is ignoring better and more skilled sportsmen in favour of others with less ability (proven or otherwise) a way to bring pride back to the national jersey.
When the political merit selection was made public, it was a system that, while understood by non-South Africans as being necessary for transformation of a racially divided nation, was also ridiculed internationally as compromising South African coaches into selected teams that did not comprise the best sportspersons in the country.
Meyer’s merit selection policy is undoubtedly being similarly mocked on the international stage as the Springboks have been transformed into Meyer’s Springbulls. A team that does not represent the best South African rugby players, but rather a team that represents South African rugby players who Meyer knows, has coached before and ofcourse.... who have that special twang of Afrikaans in their surnames.
