This thesis traces and analyses the development of sport transformation and
democratization in South Africa since the new constitutional dispensation, commencing
in the early 1990âs. The origin, evolution and development of sport in South Africa are
still in its infancy in comparison with sporting history in the global context. However,
tremendous strides have also been made in other sport events, such as hosting rugby,
soccer, cricket and golf, for example, at an international level. Furthermore, the
knowledge about sport and democracy was not well addressed, defined and explicit.
Additionally, the transformation and democratization of South African sport have been
given only superficial attention since the dawn of the new democracy.
In this regard rugby and politics have been intertwined in South African sport for more
than fifteen decades (1861â2012). There was virtually no racial mixing of any kind in
South African sport previously. The all-encompassing apartheid laws effectively
prevented racial integration, both on and off the field. Above all sports apartheid was
tragic in its denial of human dignity and its enforced waste of human talent and
possibilities.
Therefore, by using the grounded theory approach, this thesis examines empirical
evidence gathered from the research participantâs data and information. The scope and
nature of the research project necessitate applying the grounded theory approach which
included many issues at hand to understand the origin and development of the issues,
one has to determine whether transformation and democratisation of South African
sport was politically or merit driven. In addition to that, a key outcome of the research
was to construct a proposed theoretical framework by means of the grounded theory
approach in qualitative research. The framework will eventually emerge from data
collected from the relevant stakeholders involving in South African sport.
The study also examines to what extent transformation has taken place since the new
constitutional dispensation in the country. What progress has been made and at what pace. The latter issues necessitate the possibility to investigate the problem regarding
quota systems, merit selection and development programmes in rugby. These issues
form an integral part of the research on transformation and democratization in rugby.
The thesis also addresses the questions on what is the relationship between sport and
politics since the new democratic order in 1994.What are the basic assumptions that
define transformation and democratization? Do representative teams at all levels reflect
the demographics of the society or only the participating sport people? How appropriate
are the principles of transformation? For example, democracy, non-racialism, equity and
access, redress and representatively are principles which can be utilised or used to
explain the process of transformation? Therefore to interface between rugby and sport
has become a major focus of attention. Transformation in rugby since the unification in
1992 is not simply about replacing white faces with black faces but involved personal
attitudinal, institutional and paradigm changes. By applying the grounded theory
approach it was possible that all relevant theoretical contrasts could emerge as a
possible theory.
Political change in South Africa since 1994 has led to the transformation and
democratization of sporting bodies and the acceptance of non-racialism in sport. But
since 1995 Rugby World Cup transformation is viewed with suspicion from both the
Blacks and Whites. The thesis attempts to address this vicious cycle of wrong
perceptions. The conflict in sport is so intense because South Africa is culturally a
mixed society. But clinging to the past both Blacks and Whites are dangerous obstacles
to transformation. In fact, sport should be seen as a great equaliser in society.
The research framework has been constructed from the data collected from the
recorded narrative of the participants. The interpretation of the data created the context
of emerging themes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-07172013-135329 |
| Date | 17 July 2013 |
| Creators | Smiles, Joseph A |
| Contributors | Prof B Anderson |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-07172013-135329/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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