THE DEFINITIVE TRUCKING SITE

What do the South African Olympic team and many South African truck drivers have in common? They’re on their own out there, far from home, without the proper support, equipment or even, it seems, clothing necessary to do the job properly. 

My heart bleeds for our Olympic team who are in Beijing – or Beljing as it was incorrectly spelt on their official clothing – giving 100% of their best for their country despite having received scant support from those who should have been fully behind them. What upsets me is not the performances of the team members, even though at the time of writing we were halfway through the games and had only accrued one medal – the silver clinched by Khotso Mokoena for the Men’s Long Jump. No, that doesn’t upset me as anyone who lives close to competitive sport will know that the competitors would have given 100% of their best. Rather, what upsets me is that the politicians and administrators in power have let the side and the nation down - before, during and after the Games. In this case, the organising body is the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) but there are also a number of politicians who, once again, have meddled in affairs of which they know nothing. While a person like sports portfolio committee chairman Butana Komphela should have been running around ensuring our administrators and Olympic team had what they really needed – such as appropriate clothing and kit - he chose instead to sit on his pedestal and concentrate on political claptrap, shouting his mouth off about Sascoc being comprised of too many “Indians and Whites” who do not know enough about transformation. This inane statement served to put a damper on our Olympic spirit before the team had even got to the starting line. Thanks for nothing Komphela. 

As reports from Beijing tell, not only did the SA team leave our shores with no corporate sponsorship support but they had to walk onto the ‘pitch’ for the opening ceremony wearing what earned the team a ‘Gold Medal’ from the fashion pundits for being the worst dressed of all countries. More serious than the opinions of the fashion-geeks, however, was the report which stated that the kit and clothing supplied to the athletes was of a sub-standard quality with the stitching of the vests coming undone after only a few days. It was also reported that few athletes had the correct sized kit and that the clothing had been made from the same material as is used to make tracksuits. A comment on a local blog - geminisquest.blogspot.com – summed it up pretty well: “While the world’s elite athletes will be dressed in the best and latest running gear available, the South African team will be dressed like primary school cross country runners with parents on a budget. How on earth Sascoc could not find a supplier willing to dress the nation’s best is beyond me. The psychological effect of this is obvious. Imagine trying to perform when even your own country can’t be bothered to dress you properly. Every one of those athletes has trained their hearts out to represent their country and yet they will stand at their start lines looking like amateurs and chumps.” 

On the point of the lack of sponsors, Tim Noakes, director of the Sports Science Institute and internationally renowned sports expert, was quoted in an article in the Saturday Star as saying that Sascoc had lost sponsors through bad management. “Olympic Sports is so badly managed in our country; there’s very little return on investment. We’re noticing the change now but it started long  ago. South Africa hasn’t invested in sport for 10 to 15 years. Every other country has shown if you invest, you get results. Australia has shown it. China has shown it. We’ve been saying this since 1981 but no-one listens. If you want to be competitive, you have to be serious and professional. You have to have the coaches, doctors, scientists and physiotherapists on board, and you need to pay your athletes. In South Africa, we’re so arrogant, we think we can put athletes on a plane and they will win gold. It doesn’t work like that,” he said. 

It’s been reported that Australia spent about R3.5-billion on its Olympic team over the past four years. In comparison, Sascoc received about R200-million from the government and the Lotto over the past four years. Well, what can one expect when there are far more ‘important’ things for our all-wise politicians to have spent the tax-payer’s money on? I think of the three submarines bought for over R6-billion which are now sitting rotting in Simonstown as no-one knows how to drive them. And then there’s the 26 Gripen fighter jets and 24 Hawk fighter trainers that are also sitting rotting as the Defence Ministry has neither the money nor personnel to operate them. A recent report stated that 12 of the 19 Gripen pilot positions are vacant as are nearly half of the 111 ground crew positions. What a tragic dead-duck this corruption-riddled multi-billion Rand arms deal saga has been for South Africa. How much more joy would it have brought the nation if only a fraction of that money had been spent on preparing our Olympic team over the past four years. In South Africa, our politicians are focusing on all the wrong things; things that give no return – except to a handful of people of course! But that’s another story. 

Which brings me back to our truck drivers. The similarity between the treatment of the SA Olympic Team and the treatment of SA truck drivers is uncanny. How many companies give their drivers the necessary recognition, support and equipment to enable them to perform their jobs to the best of their ability and at the most productive and professional levels possible? How many companies give their drivers everything they need to ‘win gold’? From what I have picked up during my rounds – and especially during our various Brake & Tyre Watch projects – is that drivers, like our Olympic team, are given scant consideration while out there competing for their companies. One only has to look at the sorry state of the cabs some drivers are operating in, let alone the state of the overall vehicles in order to fully realise this. 

As we ponder the sorry state of affairs around support for the South African Olympic team, I want to paraphrase Tim Noakes’ statement and apply it to the trucking industry: “South Africa hasn’t invested in truck drivers for years. We’ve been saying this since 1994 (when FleetWatch was launched) but no-one listens. If you want to be competitive, you have to be serious and professional. You have to have the driver trainers – and you need to pay your drivers. In South Africa, we’re so arrogant we think we can put drivers on the road and they will win gold. It doesn’t work like that.”

Please think about it! 

Patrick O'Leary
Managing Editor