I am a South African, a proud supporter of my National team. I would love to see everyone in this country wearing a Bafana Bafana Replica come the start of the world cup. Maybe I should start by making very clear what I mean by replica.A replica is a copy that is relatively indistinguishable from the original.
Now, if you sell people a jersey that does not have all the three emblems, namely. The Safa, Adidas and Protea, you selling them something else, but not the Bafana Bafana replica. People who buy these Jerseys, want to be in the same uniform with the soldiers on the pitch, in showing their support to them.
I looked at the prices for the Bafana Bafana Jerseys in South African shops:
• R1200 – Safa, Adidas and Protea (symbol)
• R499 – Safa and Adidas logos
• R349 – Adidas logo
It then immediately struck me; this is capitalism and imperialism at their best. Capitalists are never interested in saving lives or being reasonable. They are preoccupied with maximizing their profits. This is exactly what Adidas are doing to my country. How else would they justify selling a replica for that ridiculous amount of money?
One of my friends tells me South Africans expect to buy an Adidas original for R100. He seemed to be convinced that we need some education to understand that Adidas is some heavenly brand, and we should pay for quality. Well I am not convinced that Adidas makes Bafana Bafana T-shirts with better quality than they do to any other team that uses Adidas as their kit sponsor, but why the ridiculous amount?
South Africa is hosting the World Cup, and Adidas knows that they will be making a killing out of these T-shirts. This, like I said, is Capitalism at its best. There no other Adidas replica team shirt of that amount I came across. Even the Liverpool T-shirt is much cheaper than the Bafana Bafana one. I do not insinuate that it should be, I am only under the impression that the prices cannot be far off, since they are the same brand.
There are countries like China though, who will always take advantage of any Capitalistic behaviour. It is good that we as a country have a good trade relations with them. That is the reason why most of our people in the country are able to wear a Bafana Bafana replica, that would cost you over R1000 in as far as Adidas is concerned. You go to the Market Square; you get a replica jersey for R100, with Safa, Adidas and Protea (symbol).
Capitalists will however try to convince everyone that they are not the same quality with the Original Adidas ones, but that’s not the point. The major objective is to get everyone behind the national team, not to brag and show everyone the gap between the rich and the poor, where the rich would wear the Replica, and the masses of the football supporters will wear some Original "fake" Adidas Jersey with two emblems.
Stephen Bantu Biko (Blame me for reading his writings), says to all of us who would love to see a united South Africa behind Bafana Bafana, "In time, we shall be in a position to bestow on South Africa the greatest possible gift - a more human face."
Baile (Diskioff manager)
baile.diskioff@gmail.com
