Mandela’s Rugby Moment Not So Easy for Ramaphosa to Replicate

(Bloomberg) -- Nelson Mandela, in a 2000 speech, said: “Sport can create hope, where once there was only despair.’’

His words evoked the South African leader’s famous embrace of the Springbok team that won the Rugby World Cup in 1995, for a time uniting a nation in the early post-apartheid years.

The country’s current leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, could use such an infusion of good feeling. South Africa’s economy contracted 3.2% in the first quarter, its state-owned utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. is debt-ridden and seeking new leadership, and unemployment is almost 28%.

But the sports world isn’t cooperating. The national men’s cricket team once again failed at a World Cup despite being one of the highest-ranked internationally. The women’s soccer side exited the World Cup competition last month and now the chances for the men’s team in the Africa championship hangs by a thread after a last-minute 1-0 loss to Morocco.

But all is not lost. South Africa enters the Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan ranked fifth in the world and having twice been crowned champions. Matches begin in September, around the time the nation’s economy is forecast to pick up.

To contact the reporter on this story: John McCorry in New York at jmccorry@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gordon Bell at gbell16@bloomberg.net, Alastair Reed

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