Jake White Jake White
From time immemorial, international economic migrants have permeated all the four corners of Mother Earth in search of greener pastures.
It is a natural human idiosyncrasy to pursue a better life wherever the potential may lie.
Thus when Jake White, one of SA’s most colourful sons, ditched the country for Australia, it was sad but understandable to see him leave.
White brought honour and glory to our country when, as the coach of our national rugby team, he led the Springboks to World Cup glory in 2007.
This is hardly a mean feat.
The epoch-making moment ensured that White’s name would be engraved in the annals of our sporting history till the end of time.
Today White lives in Australia where he coaches the Brumbies.
He is giving to Australia what he decided to deny SA – an excellent sporting brain seen by all and sundry following his World Cup exploits.
White is perfectly within his rights to exercise his freedom of choice in a democratic world.
However, I want to take umbrage with White’s latter-day mentality and attitude toward his country of birth, particularly its rugby fraternity.
To put it mildly, White’s attitude leaves much to be desired.
For the uninitiated, the former Springbok coach publicly denounced his country of birth.
Addressing his team before their departure for SA, where the Brumbies are scheduled to play against the Bulls at Loftus this Saturday, White reportedly said: “I’m going back to where I was born and where I coached, but my home is Canberra. I don’t want the players to think I’m going home. My home is here now.”
Again, if White has found Australia to be his preferred home in place of his natural home, he is surely neither the first nor the last to swop countries.
But men and women of honour never pooh-pooh their places of birth when they bask in the comfort of their new-found homelands.
At best, especially when the individual concerned is as prominent as a former head coach of a national sporting code, the emigrated simply shut up and keep their negative thoughts about their dumped countries to themselves and close circle of friends.
As I’ve already opined, White is perfectly within his right to exercise his freedom of movement in search of greener pastures.
The natural pursuit of better life-chances, according to the social sciences, is responsible for this global cross-border movements by individuals and groups the world over.
In my book, there is nothing particularly untoward with people’s freedom of movement or choice when those freedoms are invoked for honourable reasons. During my stint abroad, I could easily have settled permanently in either Europe or the US, but I chose to come back home to SA, the best country on Earth!
My reasons were downright personal. After being born and bred in apartheid SA, I wasn’t going to leave a free country for anything else.
Over and above all, I have always felt a deep sense of responsibility to contribute meaningfully towards the re-building of our country.
The tragedy with people such as White is that they give credence to the stereotype that white South Africans are generally unpatriotic.
In two weeks White’s Brumbies play against the Lions, in Joburg.
I bet that the rugby fraternity will find it difficult to welcome White back as a special son of the soil.
They will see in him a virtual traitor who bad-mouthed his beautiful, successful country when he certainly didn’t have to.
It was unnecessary for the once-beloved White to disgrace himself the way he did.
Many people who know White will swear that he is hardly foolish, but how he chose to burn bridges in the manner that he did is simply mind-boggling.
One can be forgiven for concluding that perhaps he is a compulsive attention-seeker, who would go to unbelievable lengths to attract national attention.
It isn’t as if the rugby and non-rugby fraternities were going to pay scant attention to his presence in his place of birth where he contributed more than most Sough Africans to the development of rugby and sport in general.
If White uttered such irrational claptrap as a way to motivate his Brumbies to wage war on the playing field and return to his beloved Australia with victories against the two local opposing teams, methinks he missed the trick.
There are many positive ways to motivate one’s team without alienating or upsetting an entire country, particularly when – like it or not – it is a country of birth.
One would have expected a reputable coach such as White to have dug deeper in his training manual to find better motivational ways than to rubbish die Vaderland en sy mense.
Home, dear Mr White, will always be sweet home.
Welcome back, regardless of your unpatriotic behaviour.
You will always be one of us, whether the devil likes it or not. And, we will always be the same loving and forgiving lot. Enjoy your visit, broer.
However, translate the following to your new countrymen: “Die poppe gaan dans!”
l Makoe is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Royal News Services. His previous columns can be found at www.frankthought.co.za.