Imagine if South Africa were run like the Springboks' change room ...

Share current article via Email Share current article via Facebook Share current article via Twitter Share current article via LinkedIn Story audio is generated using AI On September 5 2026, they did it again! SA 29 ─ 24 NZ. But the score, as I've come to appreciate, is not the point. What they are really carrying is not muscle mass, but the weight of hope. We live in a country where trust has collapsed. Citizens no longer believe the state will fix the pothole, keep the lights on, staff the clinic, or tell the truth. Too many at the helm are not stewards but shareholders of the status quo, safeguarding personal interests while the public interest withers. I know this not from headlines, but from lived experience: dismissed by someone without authority and with impunity for implementing South Africa's own governance framework. I have felt what happens when ethics becomes a punishable offence. This is not bitterness. It is grief. And then there are the Boks. Fifteen men and the eight behind them, who have chosen the opposite ethic: It is not about me … That is why a win against the All Blacks feels like oxygen. For 80 minutes, South Africans witness what good governance looks like in human form. Inside that change room lies a step-by-step guide for anyone serious about our country's potential. Merit over connection No one wears that jersey because of who his uncle is. Players are there because they earned it under brutal, transparent selection pressure. Imagine a municipality or public entity run on that single principle. Process over promises As the players constantly remind us, it's about sticking to processes and working hard during the week. No grandstanding. Good governance is boring excellence, repeated. Accountability and independence When the Boks lost 16–33 at Ellis Park on August 22, they didn't blame the referee or the past. They owned it, adjusted, and won in Cape Town a week later. Contrast that with leaders who are never held to account, who never resign, who never explain, who never learn. The Boks show us that true accountability is not humiliation; it is how you get better. Unity is built, not declared A captain from Zwide, a lock from the farms, a winger once told he was too small: the Boks don't pretend difference doesn't exist. They use it. That is exactly what Principle 5 of King V requires: an appropriate mix of knowledge, skills, experience, diversity and independence. Our state fails here. Instead of diversity of thought and skill, cadre deployment recycles people from similar political backgrounds into boards and executive committees. When everyone owes their seat to the same patron, you don't get robust governance. You get groupthink. The Boks prove the reverse: because they are diverse, they are resilient. Because no one is interchangeable, everyone is indispensable. Service to something larger than yourself You see it when they sing Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika, not as a performance, but as a burden and a privilege. They know a child in a hopeless situation is watching and, for a moment, believing that South Africa can still be excellent. A word of thanks is due. To head coach Rassie Erasmus, his assistant coaches, analysts, medical team and support staff, for deliberately building a culture where values are shown in who is selected and what standards are enforced. Not slogans. And to SA Rugby Union's executive council for getting the most important governance job right: appointing the right leaders, protecting their independence and holding the system to excellence rather than interference. It is unfair that sportsmen must carry what statesmen have dropped. And yet they carry it willingly. Win or lose, their diligence is something to write home about. If you want to bring change to the government, don't start with a new policy document. Start with the Bok standard: would this decision survive in the change room? Was it earned? Was it for the team, or for me? Carry those questions into every meeting, every budget, every appointment, and you will already be governing like a Springbok. South Africa is failing in many aspects, yes. But it is not finished. As long as 23 men can show 62-million people what it looks like to serve rather than to be served, hope still has a jersey to wear. Lastly, dear fellow ordinary citizen: take your absolute independence to the polls in November 2026.