More Than Just a Game

This programme contains some strong language.

In South Africa in the '60s, apartheid was law.

The police. The police were extremely powerful, like an army.

Peaceful protests were met with killing, torture and imprisonment.

Our people were denied all basic rights.

-Manu! Manu!

-Come on, boys, defence!

-Manu! Manu!

Manu! Manu! Manu!.

We risked our lives to advance the struggle for freedom and...

many of us ended up on the notorious Robben Island,

the Alcatraz of Africa.

We found ourselves in a place and a time

when it was easy to lose one's self.

If sport was never there on Robben Island, then really,

it would have been a very notorious place to live.

It seems strange that with what we remember and what we've done,

that we go and tell people that we've played soccer in prison.

If you look at the way we had to fight and campaign

to be allowed to play soccer, it's...

You could equate it to the fight for freedom.

But we did play soccer on Robben Island

and I think we played it well.

We were just becoming aware of a cruel and unjust system

that was taking over most of our lives.

My first knowledge of this system came from a primary school teacher.

He came into the class and wrote the word "apart"

and "hate" on the board,

emphasising the "apart" and "hate".

I made explosives.

In those days, you could get the components of explosives

almost anywhere.

Imagine today going into a shop and saying,

"Good day, sir, can I have some ammonium nitrate

"and ten kilograms of toluene.

"I want to make some TNT, you see."

I think we knew that we were getting into something dangerous

when we were getting into the struggle.

But I don't think we knew exactly how dangerous it was going to be.

It seemed normal to be involved in the struggle.

So much injustice in the land.

There was tension.

And we were young.

I was in Standard nine at Hofmeyer High School in Pretoria.

We were collecting unexploded shells from a nearby range for use at a later stage.

In the end, they came in overnight, raided different homes,

arrested 250 to 300 kids.

Came in again, and those of us who were simply

trying to make sense of the chaos that were around were also taken in.

The struggle meant a lot to me

because I saw what was happening.

I realised that our people were oppressed

and therefore I felt that I should involve myself into the struggle.

Good evening, Mr Sitoto. So where do you think you're going?

'I was arrested by the British in Northern Rhodesia.'

And they drove us all the way back to Pretoria.

And, of course, some of us came from a different political tradition.

The main liberation organisation

didn't offer what we were looking for.

We were a group of young activists, rather intellectually inclined.

We had decided to study Mao Tse-tung's book on guerrilla war,

Yu Chi Chan.

And when they finally arrested us,

the media sounded as if the whole Red Army had landed in South Africa.

We were at the beginning stages

and some of us were still trying to organise to leave the country.

And then a comrade and I were arrested

getting a lift with a famous person.

-Good afternoon.

-Good afternoon.

I don't carry a pass.

Never mind, Mr Solomon, we know who you are.

You and Mr Bam.

Will you come with us, please?

Good day, Mrs Mandela.

Football was my passion. You could even say it was my obsession.

I was the Terror of Atteridgeville.

I wanted to win.

When I played football, I played hard.

I played every chance I got.

Every time I got a ball or an open field, I played.

They told me not to go to school that day.

This girl had come to my house and told me that the police were

looking for me and that they were going to look for me at school.

And I had said to her, "Let them look for me at school.

"They know where to find me. Let them come and pick me up."

We were so brave. What was a couple of years in prison?

What was 15 years when you're not even 20 yet?

We didn't realise. We didn't think the system could be that cruel

as to send schoolchildren to Robben Island.

The island seemed to one was a very bleak place.

You had a feeling some are forsaken.

The waters just seemed to deepen that impression.

We were told, in no uncertain terms,

that you will be treated like somebody without a name

and were reminded that here, you become a number.

You have to be an epitome of obedience to the racially-supreme master.

TRANSLATION FROM AFRIKAANS

We don't understand Afrikaans.

That's not going to happen. It will never happen.

So it became very clear that if we were going to survive,

we would have to fight the notion that we were passive.

We had to show the authorities that we could

organise ourselves efficiently and with discipline.

But it was tough, especially in the quarry.

During winter, sitting down, breaking stones,

exposed to the freezing Atlantic sea spray,

is something that is very difficult to erase from memory.

Sedick, for example, still feels cold today.

It's an almost pathological reflex.

It was the same routine every day.

"Kom, kom, kom." Grab clothes and shoes and out.

The problem was you had to grab any two shoes,

whether they were the same feet or different sizes, whatever.

I'm a size ten. What is this?

Size ten. Easy, man.

You know what? I've got two left feet here.

Come on, man. I mean, you're the clever one. How about you organise me a right foot, eh?

-I think Blues has got three sevens over there.

-What's wrong with Blues?

He's the only one I know that has three shoes for two feet.

Hey, gents, I'm going to find a ten.

Hey, seriously. And not a 7/10, a 10/10.

No matter how hard they tried to crush our spirit,

we were prepared to survive.

We were prepared and determined to execute our struggle.

Hey, Tony,

this could be a ten.

I'm sure if you asked Delport nicely, maybe he...

Negotiating, you know, came out of necessity.

You had to negotiate in order to make sense of life on Robben Island.

The biggest mistake the authorities made

was to put us all together in that slate quarry in prison.

If they intended to break us in that way,

they achieved quite the opposite

because different people with different ideas

cross-pollinated ideas and thinkings.

And when I look back at it, people became much more stronger in their

convictions and persuasions than they would otherwise have been.

I remember one of the warders, he said there in the quarry

we are going to be worked to death. We are going to be destroyed.

He had a slogan for the quarry.

He said, "Daar maak jy groot klippe klein en klein klippe fyn."

"There you will make big stones small and small stones tiny."

It was very hard in the quarry, breaking the slate, you know.

When we remember the quarry, we see it as a place that unified us

as prisoners and it also contributed in unifying us as sportsmen.

Robben Island is remembered as some kind of university.

And the stone quarry, we remember it as a main auditorium

of that university.

It was a decision we made that there we are not going to

allow our vision of ourselves to be blurred

by the vision the Prison Department and the authorities had of us.

And that made us demand, not concessions,

but privileges in terms of their own, very own regulations.

Mass murder everybody.

We could not just spend one idle moment behind the cells,

so we ended up organising games.

Which we played out of the sight of warders.

Chess and cards, which we made out of cardboards,

or draughts, which was made out of pieces of soap, or even wood.

And, of course, there was ludo.

We'd draw the ludo board on a blanket with a piece of soap,

which was just as well.

And we enjoyed those games, but this was not enough.

We needed something more physical.

Hey! Shut up!

And suddenly, soccer was a passion.

It was all we could think about.

It was all we wanted to do.

We made soccer balls with anything.

Pieces of rag, paper, anything.

For us youngsters, it became a crusade.

Now we would organise our guys to go in delegations.

We would go to the senior warder.

We requested our request for soccer to be considered seriously.

We request the right to play football on weekends.

It's a privilege.

We request the right to play football on weekends.

-We request the right to play football...

-On weekends.

-Nee.

-We request the right to play football on weekends.

-Nee.

-We request...

-Nee.

-The right to play football...

-Nee.

Play football on weekends.

Uit!

We request the right to better food.

And we request the right to play football on weekends.

Nee. No. Out. Get out.

We request the right to play...

On weekends.

When the hell else would you play football?

Get out.

Naidoo, is somebody still waiting outside?

No.

It says here, "One-time soccer ball to be bought with..."

What's this word here, Naidoo?

Funds, sir. To be bought with funds.

I'm talking to Naidoo. When I'm talking to you, then you can answer.

"Bought with funds donated by the following players."

For a bunch of communists, you boys are quite flush with cash, hey?

That 20 cents a month you pay us for breaking rocks can add up.

Naidoo, are you being funny?

The chaps simply want a ball.

A proper kit, as soon as the guys can organise the funds.

Moseneke, if the CO lets you play,

and he's not going to let you play...

You people are little piccanin scarecrows already.

-Thank you, sir.

-Baas!

If you continue to ask me for this bloody stupid thing,

you bloody learn to call me Baas. Understand?

Yes.

Now get out.

Well, we had to show that our approach was indeed a very, very serious one.

Once we got going it also gave rise to what I would call a united front

that cut across party-political lines and across all age groups.

It was that united front that the authorities could not ignore.

And it was a really very powerful instrument for us to get things going.

LOCK CLICKS LOUDLY

DOOR SLAMS

CHEERING AND LAUGHTER

It was amazing.

In 1967, four years after arriving on Robben Island,

we began to play soccer on a small, makeshift field just outside our communal cells.

Everybody wanted to play football.

CHEERING AND WHISTLING

As a person who came from the Eastern Cape,

it was foreign to me, because I played rugby and cricket.

And when this soccer was introduced on the island,

those who introduced it were willing to teach us.

Right, ke madoda, here we go. It's on the chest, it goes down. Control it and kick.

-Good. Tony.

-All right, all right, gents, Alfred, you ready?

Anthony Suze was one of those soccer fanatics.

He loved soccer. He was a hard kicker and we even nicknamed him...

SPEAKS IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE

which means, "Move, I'm going to kick!"

Here we go.

Almost there! Nice try, Alfred, nice try.

Marcus, you ready?

All right, let's do this.

Oh!

OK, we'll work on that.

We'll have to work on that. We'll have to work on that.

Lizo? Let's go.

HE LAUGHS

Hey, it's rugby, Tony.

Hey, gents,

I think we found our goalkeeper.

Goalkeeper?!

There was selflessness in the teaching, of course,

but it was not always about being selfless.

Those guys that I taught about soccer, I taught because I wanted the best players on my team.

I wanted to win.

Lizo, here.

Sorry, sorry.

Alfred, Alfred! Guys, let's keep it moving.

Un-teachable!

I couldn't believe it.

You know Sedick is a scientist?

And I asked him, I said, "You, a physicist, you know all about

"forces and velocity and stuff like that,

"and so why can't you just kick that ball?"

This is... No, no, no, Dick.

Pro, the ball.

-Listen to me. I want you to go and stand over there.

-Over here, OK.

Lizo.

OK. Lizo...

'Now Lizo, he was different, even though he was a rugby player.'

OK, now when Lizo passes me the ball, you are going to run.

-First touch you get on the ball, you strike it into the net.

-No, I don't think I can do that, hey.

Dick, don't think. Just listen to me.

First strike you get on the ball, hit it into the net. Head down, weight going forward, kick under the ball.

Ready?

Sorry, sorry, sorry. Sorry.

-I'll try it again. OK, OK. Yeah. I'll try it again.

-Eye on the ball. Eye on the ball.

OK, ready, ready.

Just give the others a chance rather, I'll just sit over here.

No, you're doing nicely there.

Don't lie! He's not doing nicely at all. He's the worst football player in the world!

-It's difficult when you don't come from a sports background.

-I come from a sports background!

-What sports?

-Swimming is big in our family!

Swimming, Dick, swimming?! That's one sport that's not going to get encouraged here, wena.

The five-mile freestyle to Cape Town, huh? No, no, Dick, come on, again.

He was helpless.

You know, thank God for soccer.

When I first arrived

and saw my dear friend Bennie Ntwele looking like skin and bones

in just a few weeks on the island,

I thought I would die here, but soccer was our salvation.

And it was driven by people like Pro Malepe.

Pro was a diamond. He was fast.

He was strong, he was fit.

He was known as Pro

because he was already a professional player from Pretoria

and he was allocated the task of training the rugby players

and the non-soccer players to prepare them with basic skills.

He didn't know when to stop.

When Pro trains, he just goes on and on and on and it's up, up, up,

if it's down, it's down, down, down, but he never knows when to stop.

I need you to be saving goals, not creating them. Keep your feet on the ground!

Come, I'm counting.

One!

Two!

Three!

Gentlemen, this is the man you should be looking up to.

Freddie Simons is a specimen of my good work.

It's passion, it's commitment, it's power. I love it.

Why is that?

And not you, Mr Delport?

And not bloody me.

Passover.

That is not right.

No, it's not right.

You're a good guard.

Mr Delport,

an excellent officer,

you're always there in the rain with us.

Very dutiful.

But that is the problem, Mr Delport.

Why is it you that is standing in the rain and they all get promotions and you don't?

It's because they're using you.

They do not respect you.

Even though you work hard and you're an excellent officer.

They treat you like us.

Like less than a human being.

You must fight your case. You must write a letter.

I don't know how to write such a letter.

Maybe we can help you.

'Delport, who was so violent and so mean, eventually became our ally.

'He joined our classes and we helped him with his studies.'

'And slowly Delport become more human and Delport became a different person.

'And finally, he passed his subjects and he was promoted.

'Many of the warders loved to watch us play,'

because we created great spectator sport for them.

TRADITIONAL AFRICAN SINGING

Hey, hey!

You see that aeroplane?

That's a white man flying there, flying in the sky. And you can't even push a wheelbarrow straight!

Hey, don't turn your back on me, boetie.

When I'm talking to you, you pay attention, OK?

Hey, Jaco.

So, who's in the starting XI on Saturday?

We're playing against the Bucs, aren't we?

We're going to crush them.

Ja, Shinners better have his boots on this weekend.

There were warders who were very fond of us,

there were warders who actually were our fans.

There was a warder, Smith we called him,

who could come and open up every time I wanted to go and play.

But there was always a degree of tension because it took us years to break down the barriers,

but most importantly, of course, it took years to improve the situation on the island.

You had those who were among them who were very lonely.

They had cases where warders committed suicide,

where young men just put that rifle on the chest and pulled the trigger.

GUNSHOT

We decided to organise soccer in a much more conscious way.

We wanted to play competitive soccer so that, if there are clubs,

the one club can plan and the other club can then try and defend.

We want to set up a FIFA-type of association.

We wanted competition,

and in that competition we are going to create interest,

and that is why soccer, for us,

had to be introduced very, very systematically and carefully.

I understand, Tony,

but what I am trying to say is that the chaps can be quite regimented.

You know I can play with anybody,

but other men are saying, "Mmm-mm."

They say a lot of things, Mark, and that's the problem.

Everybody is saying something, but who's doing? Who is engaging?

Carefully, discussion, negotiation, it's not just talk.

Yes, but you see them, I mean, you see these chaps who always talk about a united front

or these games serving football instead of politics,

and what do they do the moment we start picking sides?

ANC on this side, PAC on that side. Hey?

'Right from the beginning,'

I was against picking teams

according to political organisations.

Tony, it's more complicated than that.

-Football is never just football.

-I don't know what game you've been playing,

but when I'm playing football, that is what I'm doing and I'm doing it properly.

But everything that we do here, we do it properly.

-You don't have to tell me.

-But I do.

We must keep on saying it.

We must keep repeating it. It's very easy in this place to retreat into...

I mean, how would you put it, into "familiar things"?

Like these safe political structures.

We cannot discriminate along party lines.

Do I hear it right that you've put a clause of non-discrimination in the Manong constitution?

-Exactly right.

-Today Manong, tomorrow the Makana Football Association, and next year, FIFA.

If we're going to do this, we're going to do it right.

And that's the FIFA way, or no way at all.

That is why I recruited Lizo, an African National Congress member, into my team,

Manong, which was predominantly a Pan Africanist Congress members club.

Our motto was "A lapile!"

Which literally meant "the vultures are hungry".

We stood for soccer and not politics.

Our team's aims were very clear.

One, to promote and demonstrate soccer.

Two, to spread sportsmanship and comradeship.

The third one was to ensure that every able-bodied person was taught soccer on the island.

CROWD: Penalty! Penalty! Penalty! Penalty!

They're not getting that tired any more.

You know, I'm seeing a steady improvement in our play, Marcus.

For one, better discipline from the players, and for two,

better coaching methods are being employed.

I'm really happy.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Pass the ball!

Shoot! Shoot!

CHEERING

You have to admit, Sedick, the standard of play is now really good.

Absolutely. And it's also having a tremendous impact on our morale.

CHEERING

Through football,

we could realise

and make a statement

about our humanity, about ourselves.

It's for enjoyment, it's for relaxation.

It is for fun, it is to give an opportunity for people

to get away from the hardships of the present.

We worked hard to keep football together.

I don't think I'd be wrong if I say

soccer saved many of us on the island.

SCREAMING

SHOUTING AND SCREAMING

MUFFLED SCREAMS

HE IMAGINES FOOTBALL CHANTING

Indres Naidoo

and Sedick Isaacs

were our administrators.

They could not play very well,

but they were very good administrators.

You know, when people see that reams and reams of minutes and notes we kept, they might find it strange

that we created such a large bureaucracy of our sport and our associations there on the island.

But that's the way we fought the struggle.

That was the system we came out of.

What we did, we did properly, thoroughly,

and we applied that on our sport.

Sunday to Wednesday to do postmortem.

Wednesday, we're planning for Saturday

and if perchance there were delays,

if for some reason, the warder did not turn up on time,

we would end up filled with anxiety.

Ah, Mr Malan, you know we only have from 9 until 11 o'clock. I'm sure it's about quarter past 9 now.

We can't run our prison according to your sporting timetables!

Eish, Warder Malan, it's just that we don't have a lot of time.

Did you watch?

Are you going to watch now?

TRANSLATED FROM XHOSA

Warder Malan is now speaking Xhosa?

I wonder what Warder Delport would say, Warder Malan?

Ja, that is exactly what he would say.

Kom! Kom, mense!

Playing football was the only time we were out in the open,

away from the cells and not doing any hard work of the quarry.

It was so wonderful to feel the sun on you while you were enjoying soccer.

It brightened us.

# ..over all of us

# As we play

# Play ball

# Running, running, running

# Having fun... #

Why did I get a yellow card?

We both went for the ball!

Mr Maseko, the Makana Football Association Disciplinary Committee

has reviewed your case and we came to this conclusion.

It was a 50-50 situation and you both went for the ball.

But you, on the other hand, deliberately showed your studs

across the face of the ball, intending to harm the other player.

That's why you got a yellow card.

Your complaint is overruled, Mr Maseko. Thank you very much.

You may leave the cell.

Did you get that down?

Defence! CHEERING AND SHOUTING

And then they sent warders to the mainland to buy our soccer kit

and we finally got colour into the game and into our lives.

You know, the uniform of a prisoner is monotonous.

It's the same all over and all over,

but now putting something different would place us

to a greater extent, you know,

to think that we are outside, enjoying ourselves outside prison.

Makana Football Association

was named after the Xhosa chief,

a warrior, who was arrested by the British.

He was taken to the island.

He attempted to escape. He died whilst doing that.

And we honoured him by naming our association after him.

This Makana Football Association,

it was a big thing. We had over 200 guys playing.

For example, there were three teams.

There was the A, B and C.

The A team was for the top players, whereas your C team

would be for the real amateurs, guys like Sedick, for example.

The A division had three teams.

The B division had three teams.

And the C division had two teams.

The A teams needed chairmen,

and they got the chairmen.

The criteria we had was not the ability to speak refined English,

or a sense of formal education,

but what we needed was the ability to lead.

The A chairmen were going to be led by one single chairman, the Makana Football Association chairman.

And the guy they eventually chose, was a unifying guy, a calm guy, a guy that could debate issues.

He had a fantastic grasp of the rules of soccer.

Dikgang Moseneke,

I think he was 16 years when he came to the island.

Today, he is the Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa.

Yeah, we demanded to be given a bigger field where we were going to play our sport.

Regulation size, to FIFA requirements.

CHEERING

And so, in 1969, we moved to our new field.

CHANTING

Well, Harry Gwala was a prominent member of the Communist Party of South Africa,

but he also had a very deep understanding of sports

in what was known as the Socialist Bloc, especially soccer.

He would know the names of all the great soccer players. Moscow Dynamo, which was the famous Russian team.

He was also very strict on the field.

It was not easy for him to change his decision.

Welcome, gentlemen. First on our agenda is a report back from Marcus Solomon.

But first he will take us through matters arising from Saturday's match.

Oh, he has also advised me that he would like to tackle a very important issue before he reads the report.

With your permission, gentlemen?

-Yes, sure.

-Marcus, please.

Thank you, Chairman Gwala.

No, it's just that, how can I put it,

we are all players from time to time. We are not only referees.

We know how it is. There are passions, healthy passions.

But I know I've said this before, and please forgive me if I'm flogging a dead horse,

but we cannot allow rough play.

SHOUTING

What?

Makana Football Association draw for Saturday, 14th May, 1970.

Black Eagles versus Dynaspurs, your referee is Mr Harry Gwala.

Finally, we've got the Silver Stars versus Rangers,

referee Mr S. Govender.

Linesmen will be Mr Njama, Mr Kunene, Mr Singh and Mr Radebe.

Look, can't we have Mr...

CHEERING AND SHOUTING

WHISTLE BLOWS

The League log, latest points.

SHOUTING

I don't want to hear it, Mr Suze.

I ruled according to what I saw in the field of play.

Field of play, what field of play, on which field of play were you on when that happened?

Tony, if you have any complaints, use the official channels.

Official channels? Do you want to know what you can do with your official channels?

I'll tell you what you can do, you can take your official channels, file them, in triplicate for all I care!

Right is right and wrong is wrong, Mr Referee, and in this case, I am right and you are wrong!

Yeah!

CHEERING

Presentation to the B Division champions!

Well done, sir.

Well played.

CHEERING

B Division champions!

We had fans, we had banners, we had logos, we had everything.

Spectators were fanatics, you know, they loved soccer.

They tended now to own the sport itself.

A chap like Blues, and there was another one like Baartman.

For my sake, Mark, win it for me! If you can't win it for your captain,

then think of Baartman, who cries every time when you lose!

It hurts me.

Please, I'm begging you.

I don't want those other guys to win.

You're my only hope, my heroes, my superstars!

LAUGHTER

Defence!

Dick! Hey, Dick!

They promised me they're going to win it for Baartman!

They swore! Leave that Blues maniac alone and fight with the real man.

A real soccer man!

Isaacs!

Sedick Isaacs!

What is it, Blues, I can hear you!

-I call you out.

-What?

Hey, Blues, you a crazy man.

Here I am. You still support the losing team.

Today, Dick, today is today!

-What day, Blues?

-Today's the day that you die!

You said that three weeks ago! Is that the day or is today the day?

You're confusing me.

Today is the day that you die.

Ah!

Wow! It can't be. Look at that!

-Yes!

-Look at that!

-Yes, it is!

-Hey, hey!

-Mandela.

And Walter Sisulu!

Ahmed Kathrada!

No, no, no, no, no, no, that's not Kathrada and that's not Mandela!

That's... Come, you're not supposed to see that, people! Move!

THEY CHANT IN THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE

After that, we never saw the prisoners from that section again.

They actually built a wall between us to keep them hidden away.

When we used to have regular meetings, we had to pick sides.

And of course, there was a motto that guided all soccer on the island.

The motto of the Makana Football Association was "Service Before Self".

Gentlemen, we have here the names of the team that will be playing the big match on Saturday.

OK! Shabalala.

When I played, it was like I was home again. It would transport you away from the island.

Chilewane, Kekane, Zwelendawu...

When we were told that we were not going to play in a particular weekend,

we felt so bad.

I'm sorry for those gentlemen that didn't make it. We'll practise hard this week with Pro.

As far as we were concerned, a socialist society was one in which all aspects of your life

had to be catered for.

Your mind, your body, your soul, your spirit.

And sports,

playing sports, playing soccer was a very important part

of that integrated, holistic approach to life.

For me it was difficult because I always wanted to win.

By now, we were successfully administering and playing soccer ourselves.

We had allowed no interference from the authorities, and this made them mad!

It was one area on the island in which we were sovereign, and where we had control over our lives.

Even when working in that terrible quarry, we found time to discuss soccer issues.

Like me complaining about selecting the best teams, and Pro's complaints about training.

I tell you, man, they're going to lose.

They're going to lose because they have got no stamina,

because they only went to use the bathroom for ten minutes. Ten minutes!

-You can't do anything.

-I thought it was scheduled for half an hour?

-No, it's 45 minutes!

The upper body for 15 minutes and the trunk for 15 minutes.

-And running for 15 minutes, man.

-So?

What is Pro complaining about now?

He's angry that Harry took most of his training time to give the guys a glimpse behind the Iron Curtain.

Pro feels they are not going to be ready for the soccer.

What's Pro's feeling about Mbatha playing this week?

Eish, Marcus, it is very difficult.

Old Boots hasn't had a game in three weeks...

Old Boots hasn't had a game in three weeks because Old Boots plays football like a drunk.

-And he is very unhappy about not playing.

-Well, I'm very unhappy about it when he does play.

They told me Boots wants to lodge a complaint with the committee if you play Pro again.

Yeah, I know, I know.

'The selection process, it was a hell of a process.

'You want to play inclusive soccer.

'You want to involve everybody.

'But then you know'

that Saturday, the other team is going to pick up their best players.

You start wondering, to say, "Now, look, what is important this week?" you know?

Talk to your guys, you know, they should take it easy on socialism,

you know, until we've played our football and then they can go back to their agenda.

There were clubs playing, and at the end of the year, in order to play within one another's clubs,

not playing against one another, they created what was called selected sides.

Mix the clubs up, and those who played with one another,

now played against one another

in their new temporary club and they called it selected sides.

A side was picked on Robben Island,

and they named themselves the Atlantic Raiders.

The Raiders were, almost by accident, a very, very strong side.

Strong soccer players like Suze, and Bitmos and Freddie Simon.

And it was out of the whole discourse of inclusiveness on the one side

and a desire to win at all costs,

that the incident of the Atlantic Raiders arose.

Skull and bones, gents, Atlantic Raiders.

CHEERING AND SHOUTING

Young guys, fast guys, hard guys.

They've poached two players from Manong.

The Bucs team have lost two players.

People are saying these Raiders play only for pride, for vanity.

CHEERING

Suze only plays for one thing and that's to win!

-Skull and bones forever.

-Enough with that nonsense now.

I know you gents.

I know you, you are Silver Stars men and Manong men.

You're not secessionist hooligans!

Stop this nonsense now.

Atlantic Raiders, they were the elite.

WE were the elite.

The best players in the best team.

Selected from across all the cells in the island. We were the best.

Atlantic Raiders was just a team

that had everything to do with the status, you know.

Yeah, yeah, there were complaints and accusations because we were the best, we were the strongest team.

They were rocking the boat right from the start.

The men wanted to leave their clubs in order to join the Raiders.

We were good, man.

The Atlantic Raiders was a top team

and the Blue Rocks were right at the bottom.

It was a very poor team.

Webo, Webo!

Old crocks, you know? But everybody had to play in the Makana Football Association. It was the ethos.

And so that's how it came naturally that these Blue Rocks,

these old guys, these crocks, had to play Atlantic Raiders.

It was always going to be a massacre.

Massacre.

I don't know what was their preparation like before we played that November.

But what I know,

that our preparation, as always,

was pretty intense.

And then the big day came.

I was really looking forward to that match.

You know, although we were political prisoners, we did not want politics to consume us.

We did seminars and political discussions. But then we also wanted some fun.

And playing Blue Rocks was going to be great fun.

WHISTLE BLOWS

-Offside, ref, offside!

-Play on!

No offside! Play on!

WHISTLE BLOWS

He was totally offside. Totally. I think he even handled the ball!

Really, it's a tough experience,

going behind the net to go and collect a ball

that has been scored against you as a goalkeeper.

-A goal? How?

-It's a goal. I am applying FIFA rules, the goal stands.

That was clearly offside, and what about the handball?

Two bloody yards away from the last feet! How can that possibly...

This is unacceptable! I cannot ref under these conditions.

Harry Gwala - stubborn.

Where are you going? Where's he going?!

You're walking away.

Anthony Suze - stubborn!

That's against FIFA rules!

It was crazy but we said, "Let's just win this thing and get back home."

CHEERING

Pass the ball!

Move!

HE SHOUTS IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE

Come, gents, come, gents.

Pass the ball!

The old crocks decided to go and block the goals, you know.

Pass the ball, man!

Pass the ball, Freddie!

It went on

until it came clear that the pros, the Raiders camp, could not score.

CHEERING

CHANTING: Blue Rocks! Blue Rocks! Blue Rocks! Blue Rocks!

CHANTING: Blue Rocks! Blue Rocks! Blue Rocks!

CHANTING: Blue Rocks! Blue Rocks! Blue Rocks!

The record book, of course, reflected that Blue Rocks had won the match.

-I know, Tony, I saw it. OK, I saw it.

-Jesus, Dick!

Jesus! I mean, a complaint.

A formal appeal or something.

That thing can't stand. It's a farce.

We will appeal immediately.

There are various grounds we can appeal on. For instance...

The refereeing is a bloody joke.

-Yes.

-That's what. Dick, you can't do that.

You saw what he did, he just went off the field like that.

You can't do that. That is against FIFA regulations, right?

I'm almost certain it is, yeah.

How then? Jesus, Dick, I mean this thing is a knockout competition.

'But now, they couldn't take it.

'Blame the referee,'

blame the linesmen, blame everything in the world, you know.

We appealed almost immediately.

We threw the book at the MFA.

It was serious stuff.

We went there with our captain, Freddie Simon,

our vice-captain, Lucas Mahlangu, and we became very, very technical.

But Mr Isaacs,

the executive committee of the Makana Football Association

believes that you have covered this territory already.

If you had a complaint, it behoves you to make your protest

immediately after the irregularity had been observed.

Once again, I'd like to refer you to the constitution of the Makana Football Association,

section 7(c), page nine, where it clearly states that...

With all due respect, Mr Secretary,

what we are saying, and not for the first time in this meeting,

is that we are aware of section 7(c).

But we find it problematic.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines "observe"

as "become conscious of".

The events leading to our protest...

Mr Isaacs!

Please do not try to divert this hearing with sophistry.

It will not be tolerated.

Mr Secretary,

I'm simply pointing out

that the events leading to our protest

are complex and require checking.

Will you concede that?

-Go on.

-And because they require checking,

the process of becoming conscious of these events - that is,

observing them - has taken some time,

which is why we are presenting our petition of appeal

through the correct channels now.

He allowed that rubbish handball of a goal

and he just walks off the field, like a bloody chicken!

And he unceremoniously deserted the field after allowing a goal which had a telling effect on our morale.

And which arose from a malicious application of the contents of the Referees' Charter.

In light of these...

..horrible mistakes, I kept on shouting,

Dick, I kept on shouting, "Come on!

"I mean, come on, are you blind?

"Can't you see? Don't you know what a handball is?

"Don't you know what an offside is?" Then, you know what?

He then reacted to the infringement

of the association football rules with mirth,

as if it was a joke.

This is fully counter

to the spirit and history of association football.

And it is also proof...

..that all referees are bloody nincompoops, yeah!

You tell them, Dick, you tell them.

Nincompoops.

'We asked for a replay.'

We asked for a change

of the status of the game, anything! We fought very hard.

But sometimes I think we fought too hard.

It took five months to resolve the Atlantic Raiders-Blue Rocks demonstration.

We allowed due process to take place, no matter how frustrating the whole affair was.

And we would never have become violent about it.

One of the cardinal rules was never to lay hands on another political prisoner

and never give warders or guards an excuse to intervene.

Duress.

We'd make our case in such a way that they had to listen.

Was it the right thing to do?

It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

It seemed like the only thing to do.

'When Makana Football Association stages a match,'

we'll not allow them to play. We went and squatted on the soccer field.

It's duress, Warder Delport.

Protest, Warder Delport.

You know about protesting and what you believe in is due to you, not so?

You can't do that here!

Freddie, Anthony, how long are you going to lie there?

For as long as it takes to get justice.

This man belongs to your club. Please, talk to him.

TRANSLATED FROM HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE

And now, gents,

why such long faces? Huh?

A vulture must fly high from time to time. That is a point of principle.

No, I do not see any vulture,

but I see something that's lying flat on his belly on the ground.

Please, Anthony.

Your chairman is asking you.

No, no, no, Chairman.

I'm sorry, but I'm drunk with rebellion.

It is not proper.

This thing is not proper!

Don't you got any manners?

Uncivilised.

And now?

And now,

we wait for justice.

We were serious.

We were willing to push this protest.

To hell with the consequences.

It's the principle.

If you're playing to FIFA standards, you cannot just suddenly say...

What about the principle of comradeship?

What about that, Maxabane?

You guys have become so obsessed with winning.

I'm not obsessed with anything!

Hey, very nice.

Careful, prisoner.

Hey.

-I heard that old guy in C2...

-Mpofu?

-Mpofu, yeah.

He's got high blood pressure because of this whole protest.

Eish, everyone gets high blood pressure and depression here.

It's like asthma and TB.

But you can't tell me we're also getting TB and depression because of the Atlantic Raiders.

Hey, guys, I don't like it.

The whole thing makes me very, very unhappy.

Eish.

What is wrong, is setting down guidelines, agreed to in a democratic and organised way,

-then changing those guidelines at the last minute?

-Comrades, please.

Leave this on the soccer field, or the disciplinary hearing, where it belongs.

Please, it is very distressing.

But that is the point, comrade.

This is something that affects every aspect of our lives.

-So we have to take position on...

-Enough!

Do not tell me what to do.

Leave it alone!

This is causing mayhem, high blood pressure, you name it.

Those who are angry, those who don't relate, they don't talk to one another, and so forth.

Laughter, ridicule, turned to anger,

it turned to emotion, it tended to divide us now.

It was serious.

We couldn't accept the fact that we'd been beaten by this lousy side.

Gentlemen.

I have here my report on the activities of our club,

Dynaspurs Football Club, over the period January to June, 1971.

And I had intended to read the entire document to you today

before I make it available to you for your perusal.

There are various administrative improvements I wanted to share with you.

And there are also players whom we should single out as having improved dramatically so far this year.

But right now I think I would like to start on the second page of my report

with an issue that has been weighing very heavily on all of us

and that has certainly depressed me personally since it took place.

Why do we play soccer?

Or any sport for that matter?

Do we play to win?

So we can say we thrashed such and such a club?

For points, for diplomas and trophies?

No.

Let us remember that our sporting activities here on the island

are meant and aimed at making our stay here less unbearable

and less intolerable than it is.

Let us not allow them to become the causes of more frustration,

tension and discomfort than they already are.

Some of us might say, "Noble ideals and big talk,

"which have no bearing on the real situation."

I would like to answer those people with a question.

"If we had no noble ideals,

"would we have been here today?"

So the guys appealed to us through the committee structures.

They threatened us in all kinds of manners and ways.

They appealed to our sentiments as political prisoners,

as sportsmen, as comrades.

It didn't work, but you see, the thing is we, as things went on,

we felt we had to back down.

We knew we had to back down.

It was becoming unpleasant for everybody.

And we wanted to throw in the towel, but we just didn't know how.

THEY CHATTER INDECIPHERABLY

Anthony.

'There was this old man in my club,'

Makaleni.

He was the chairman of our club, Manong.

Makaleni was not a highly-educated person,

but he was very articulate and a very good administrator.

And he understood people.

And particularly, he understood how to deal with people's weaknesses.

And he knew my weakness.

What do you have to lose? You've got nothing to lose.

You can tell these...

Mnumzana, please.

It's an impossible position, it's impossible.

It only seems impossible because you are so young, Anthony.

But humour a foolish old man like me and listen.

You've got nothing to lose.

You led these men away.

Now lead them back to us.

Yeah, yeah, but, Mnumzana, it's not just me.

There's a committee, even this, you know...

No, no. Find a way, find a solution.

And lead them back to us. Lead, Anthony, don't just play.

Lead, Anthony!

TRADITIONAL AFRICAN SINGING

Where are you going?

Back.

Because they were good soccer players, we needed them.

By the 1970s, I'd obviously grown older,

a little slower also.

We continued playing soccer, of course,

but a lot of us, had moved into more senior administrative positions.

For instance, I'd become a soccer referee,

and had become part of my club executive.

For us it was an era coming to an end.

There was, of course, still a number of hardcore lifers,

but they were getting older.

For those of us who arrived in the '60s, we were being released.

It was quite something, the idea of being free.

I was 19 when I got to the island.

And now I was in my mid-30s.

Yeah, I think that the...the...

As I said, ironically, for me, the saddest day

was when I left the island,

because I left so many people.

But when we look back, I think it was a good experience.

A very good experience.

My first thoughts were,

"Where am I going? What's it like?

"I'm used to where I am now

"and I'm going to a new world altogether.

"Am I going to fit?

"My family, who are they any more?

"Do they still know me? Do I still know them?

"My friends, are they still alive?"

All those things went through my mind very quickly.

Today you find a lot of people

talk about the suffering on Robben Island.

Yes, there was a lot of suffering, but I think

there's too much focus on that.

And that sort of thing worries me.

The people who really suffered, I believe,

were the families we left behind, the wives and the children.

It was very, very, very emotional.

The idea of going into the ship

and going back to the mainland and going home.

June '76, the students' uprising, right?

Those are some things that were inspiring us.

They were making us more stronger.

And we felt that liberation was just very near.

Those were students,

they were like soldiers in school uniforms.

They fought bravely, you know, against the police.

And they were arrested in droves and were sent to the island.

Young people who were coming in

were very enthusiastic footballers themselves.

So they needed no encouragement in terms of keeping

and adhering to the structures that had been put in place.

We feel quite pleased sometimes that at least we left something

that could guide people or make people understand how we tried to live our lives.

And I think, hopefully, that should be the sort of thing

that should get people to understand the way forward, in a sense.

One could say that we passed on the baton,

we passed on the legacy to them, we passed on the game.

It was more than a game.

# I see in your eyes

# The sad history of our times

# The violent days of betrayal

# The screaming of the innocents

# As people were gunned down

# Many disappearing without a trace

# Mmm, whoa-oh-oh-oh

# Whoa-oh-oh

# You were banished to an island

# A place beyond hope

# Yet you stood proud and tall

# And a new hope dawned

# And the joy

# Of your dreams

# Set you free

# Will set you free

# Free

# Ah-ah

# Let my angry words reflect the story of your life

# Keep on

# As the pain still dances in your eyes

# Keep on caring, sharing

# Tenderness and faith

# Must thrive

# Keep this feeling alive

# Let our hearts be strengthened on the road

# All the hope

# I see in your eyes... #

The 2010 FIFA World Cup

will be organised in South Africa.

CHEERING

# And their spirit sings today

# Mmm-hmm

# For the colours of a new day

# And my spirit sings today

# Mmm-hmm

# For the colours of a new day

# Calling

# The spirit of Ubuntu. #

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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