The Race to Transform: Sports in Post Apartheid South Africa

A pioneering exploration of sports in South Africa today, this study challenges the popular idea that sporting events in the country have helped to ease racial tensions and pave the way to a common South African destiny. The contributors, a mix of activist intellectuals and sportswriters, outline the ongoing debate about sport as a means social transformation. At the center of the discussion is the popular emphasis on the international success of the national teams—South Africa won the Rugby World Cups and will host the Soccer World Cup in 2010—as well as the proposed theory that grassroots township teams are losing status as the black middle classes turn to expensive professional sports.