Legodi: I did it for unity
EXCLUSIVE: Tshepo J Legodi has revealed why he, as a black man, decided to wave an old South African flag at a Springbok Test match in London last year. The debate about the display of the old flag in public places has been raging on since November and Legodi decided it is time to put the matter into perspective … while also lifting the lid on his decision to do what is regarded as a big taboo! Rugby365 brings you this exclusive!
Springbok coach has fired the first salvo in the verbal war over the International Rugby Board (IRB) directives on scrum engagements, which White thinks are to the advantage of South African teams. The Bok mentor has suggested that the Australian, in particular, coaches will try to bend the laws to negate the perceived advantage of South African teams.
I have only recently just realised that the waving of the old South African flag has caused a major uproar back in South Africa and to have a black person waving one just doesn’t make any logical sense.
You will ask what was the main reason I had that flag with me?
Firstly I know a lot of people will argue that I am too young to know exactly what went on during the apartheid era. I might be too young to have experienced the wrath of it, but I’m not too young to understand what people have had to go through.
I started my schooling at an all black school simply because we were not allowed to attend white schools. But that later changed and I was one of the first black students to attend my old primary school Pietersburg English Medium Primary School (P.E.M.P.S).
Yes I must admit it was not easy at first it took a lot of adjusting, but at the end I have managed to adapt. I played cricket for my province and even that was not easy to start off with. Again I was the first black pupil to represent the then Far North province in cricket and when it came to going on tours, sharing rooms and even communicating was a mission – as most of my teammates were Afrikaans.
I’m sure this was not easy for them either. It takes time to adapt, but to be honest I have made some good friends through all those times.
The reason I decided to have the old flag with me was not to remind me or anyone of the past. I think that if people have really moved on then something from the past should not awake the ghosts from the past.
My main reason was to show that I accept what happened in the past and have moved on, that I hold no grudges against anyone.
Yes that era was bad, but to pretend it never happened and say lets ban the flag and make sure it never exists is just trying to bury something that is part and parcel of our history. I mean what are we going to say to grandchildren in the future? We have to able to show them that we accept what happed and have moved on.
I am waving the flag to show that I have moved on.
That flag represented the whole of South Africa back then and not all of them were racists and oppressors. Guess what? They were all proud South Africans then. And guess what? They are proud South Africans now with the new flag.
Let us not hold grudges. We cannot forget what happened back then and to prove that I have moved on I decided to wave a flag that existed during the time that the elders had suffered through … to show that I have moved on.
I am proud to be South African, proud of my roots and proud to have got a far as I have. I have both flags at my house (both the past and the future of South Africa).
I mean if people cannot work out why a black would carry that flag then I’m speechless. That is the most obvious sign of unity you could ask for.
I guess we all have our different ways of interpreting different situations.
By Tshepo J Legodi
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