JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- In 1995 when the all-white South African rugby squad won the World Cup, President Nelson Mandela put on the green and yellow shirt of the team that for years had symbolized white supremacy here, and the whole nation cheered.

The thrill of international honors for a previously pariah nation brought whites and blacks to their feet together. Twelve months after the 1994 election of the first black-majority government here, sport seemed set to be the great unifier of a divided country.

Three years later, sport has become a divisive issue, with the ruling African National Congress taking action to get more black players into the national lineups, particularly in rugby and cricket.

This has provoked charges of racism and opened a debate over whether skin color should prevail over merit in a society trying to put its apartheid past behind it and create a "rainbow nation."

Rugby and cricket have traditionally been white-dominated sports here, and soccer the chosen game of the black townships. The national soccer team, known as Bafana-Bafana, is virtually all black, which causes no raised eyebrows in a country where 76 percent of the population is black.

But the sight of all-white rugby and cricket teams representing a country in which only 13 percent of the population is white, is seen by sports minister Steve Tshwete as an affront to the transformation of society here.

His response: a special commission, to be created early next year, that will accelerate the coloring of national sports teams here.

Officials in both rugby and cricket accept the need for fielding more representative teams, and both sports have development programs to foster talented players from what is officially termed here "the previously disadvantaged community." But, for those now in charge, it is taking too much time.

"Cricket administrators tell us their development program started way back in 1986. Where are their products now?" asks Lulu Xingwana, who chairs the parliamentary sport portfolio committee, at a press conference earlier this month.

"Both the rugby and cricket national teams remain lily-white despite their much-publicized development programs," she says. "We hope with the establishment of the sports commission next year, transformation will no longer be a pipe dream, but a reality."

The United Cricket Board this month ordered provincial selectors to include players of color in all provincial teams, starting in February. This action came after the national selectors were slammed for fielding an all-white South African team for the first match against a visiting West Indies side earlier this month.

The selectors responded that the four or five black players with the talent to play for the national team were either sick or off form. They asked the board to help provide a larger pool of black players.

The team for the third game against the West Indies, played over the Christmas holiday in Durban, included a black batsman, Herschelle Gibbs, who also played in the second match. Another black, Paul Adams, was selected as a reserve bowler. Both have said that they are against quotas for blacks in sport and want to be selected only on merit.

"We have always targeted improving the demographics of the national team," says Chris Day, cricket board spokesman. "What we are trying to do now is fast-track it."

He suggests that the provincial cricket authorities are thinking short-term. "They are hoping to win trophies with players who can win trophies," he says. "We are saying you have to look beyond that and provide opportunities for players of color. We feel you can only have appropriate merit selection if you have equal opportunity."

Day predicts that in two to three years, the national team will have as many players of color as whites, noting that representational youth teams are already 50-50 in racial make-up. "These are the teams of the future," he says.

Cricket and rugby are being targeted as the main offenders, but other sports are also having a hard time finding black talent.

At a parliamentary hearing into sports earlier this year, the president of the motor-sport development commission said it was difficult to find blacks with drivers licenses. In its search for new drivers, the commission approached the women's soccer league in the black township of Guguletu, outside of Cape Town. Only two of the 140 women soccer players could drive.

The South African Rowing Union reported that only 10 percent of South Africans can swim,excluding the vast majority from the water sport.

One sport that received a recent boost in black interest is golf. As in other sports, black involvement in golf was blighted by apartheid, which kept most clubs white.

But the arrival of Tiger Woods here this month to play in the Million Dollar Challenge at Sun City sparked a wave of excitement among blacks. Many youngsters were bused to the resort to meet the 22-year-old, who ended the tournament as runner-up to Nick Price after five holes of sudden death.

"It's really nice I can come down here as a person of color and look at the galleries out here today," said Woods, noting the presence of young Africans in the mainly white crowd. "It is just great."

After almost half a century of racial segregation and four years of black-majority rule, the pressure for change is now virtually irresistible.

"Every African person in this country who loves sport will tell you they would love to see that change as of yesterday," says Dumisani Zulu, sports ministry spokesman. "There are millions of young people in our townships who are getting involved in sport, who are very effective, but they are not given an opportunity to display their talent."

The government does not want to lay down the law to team selectors, Zulu says, but he adds: "Already, we have told them, enough is enough. It's time to move in a proper direction. Our sports administrators know what the country wants, know what are the aspirations of the sporting people of this country -- to ensure our teams reflect the demographics of our society."

Abe Williams, a former assistant manager for the Springboks national rugby team and sports spokesman for the opposition National Party, endorses representative sports, but he insists: "There is one thing we must stand firm on and that is merit selection."

The government, he says, should give more funding to development programs for young blacks and expand facilities in the townships. "I don't think we need political interference in sport."

Getting to the nub of the problem, Business Day, a paper usually more concerned with bottom lines than score lines, said in an editorial on cricket: "Without a consistent presence of local black players in the national and top provincial sides there will be an absence of cricketing heroes in black communities. That will mean fewer people being attracted to the game as players and spectators. It's a vicious cycle which needs to be broken."

Pub Date: 12/29/98