Opinion | Treat Bafana Bafana like the Springboks

The World Cup kicks off tomorrow night and Bafana Bafana are right there, opening the tournament with Mexico in a wonderful full circle moment to that special time 16 years ago at Soccer City. There’ll be no vuvuzelas allowed, and that isn’t the only thing that Fifa is banning. But, as we discovered during the Covid-19 lockdown, the world finds a way when things are banned.

You can’t think of Johannesburg in 2010 without roadside touts at intersections selling South African flag side-mirror sleeves and Bafana shirts aplenty. Once Bafana Bafana were eliminated there were Argentina team shirts, Ghana shirts and Spanish shirts. Spain took a stroll around Zoo Lake in Johannesburg on the morning of the final without a care in the world, possibly the coolest human beings you could ever imagine.

They won the tournament that night. The point is that for those who just wanted to be part of the gees, the illegal trade sated that need. It was the same for many years with the Springboks.

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You couldn’t drive through Johannesburg on a Test game Saturday without the many roadside vendors hawking really kak fake kit that managed to merge sponsors and world cup designs onto the same jersey. Retailers have made it easier for supporters to back Bafana, just as in the case of the Boks, without relying on cheap counterfeit merchandise. The Boks, with their partnership with Pick n Pay, have brought out a really great range of affordable fan gear from hats to T-shirts, sweatshirts, jerseys and pyjamas, nogal, that killed the illegal trade.

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