The following appeared in the UK’s Independent:

“The springbok has been the instantly recognisable symbol of South Africa since 1906 and was preserved in the post-apartheid era. Now the ANC wants to replace it and unite all the nation’s sporting teams under one symbol – the protea.

For more than 100 years it has been a powerful symbol in South Africa, first dividing and then uniting a population once riven by racial division. But this weekend could see the springbok kicked into touch as the national rugby union team’s emblem and replaced – whisper it quietly in clubhouses – by a flower.

The ruling ANC said it wants to unite all its sporting sides under one emblem and so the leaping antelope which has never been more popular in the Republic, looks set to get its marching orders. The graceful animal has featured on the green and gold rugby shirts of South Africa for 102 years since being adopted during a tour of Britain in 1906-07.

It is said that the team’s first captain, Paul Roos, chose the springbok on an impromptu basis to prevent the British press from inventing their own name – nothing new there.

The animal appeared on the left breast pocket and blazer of the green uniform, a colour which had been adopted 10 years before. Commentators at the time said the tour created a sense of national pride back home and helped ease bad feeling over the two Boer Wars.

The first coloured national team used the Springbok as its emblem in 1939 and the first black national team used it in 1950. It has also undergone a few facelifts and leapt in different directions. In 1992, when racial sporting rules were abandoned in South Africa, a wreath of proteas – the country’s national flower – was added above the animal.

Minor changes have occurred since but this weekend the ANC may finally signal its demise after a number of threats since first taking power in 1994.”

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