'Satan' hits back at Cronje comments

In this week's Africa Media Watch:

• What South Africans have been reading about the Hansie Cronje cricket corruption case.
• Will South Africa benefit from English hooliganism at Euro 2000?

Rotten tomato

The case of the disgraced former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje has elicited both understanding and condemnation in the country's media.

There is little sympathy from The Mail and Guardian columnist Robert Kirby.

Stumped: Hansie Cronje

Kirby writes that Cronje's confession that he had accepted money "was like finding the soft tomato at the bottom of the bag. You don't have to cut it open to know it's rancid".

"What is more sordid is the way the politicians won't let it alone. They are still crawling all over the Cronje affair leaving long trails of drivel to show where they've been."

Kirby attacked the decision by the commission investigating the case to offer Cronje immunity in exchange for a full confession.

"There is no acceptable reason for Cronje and his fellows to be offered immunity. Hour by hour in the commission hearings these men are revealed as direct contradictions of everything they have presented themselves to be."

Politicians are still crawling all over the Cronje affair, leaving long trails of drivel

Robert Kirby, Mail and Guardian

Kirby says Cronje "is simply abject, a somewhat pathetic figure, promoted - mainly by cynical commercial exploitation of a fine sport - far beyond his moral competence".

No aberration

An editorial in the Financial Mail pinned the blame for corruption on society at large.

Cronje was merely swimming in the sewer

Financial Mail

"A society that has for decades carried such a cancer within itself cannot hold a moral candle to anybody. When laws are immoral, lawlessness becomes a virtue," it said.

"A system that allows murderers to walk free cannot be expected to be unduly concerned about the dirt in cricket. After all, it's only a game, Money changed hands but nobody got hurt."

Society, the Financial Mail argued, was seeking to "polish its own image by being seen to be vigorously rubbishing or distancing itself from Cronje. Casting him to the swine make us look and feel good. We are basking in his agonies".

"Yet we do not have the moral right to gloat and point fingers - not with the sort of past that we have. Moral depravity doesn't come any lower than apartheid."

If Cronje had been living a lie for five years, "we've been living a lie for most of our history", the paper said.

Hansie Cronje is not an aberration

Financial Mail

"Everywhere you look, somebody is cheating - be it fiddling tax returns, illegally spiriting away vast sums of money out of the country, or making a pile through insider trading on the stock exchange."

Corruption had permeated the state and private sectors equally. "No, Hansie Cronje is not an aberration. Certainly, he will have to confront his demons. But so must we all," the Financial Mail editorial concluded.

Satan calling

David Bullard in the Sunday Times wrote that Satan called him by phone to discuss the Cronje case. Cronje had claimed it was Satan's work which caused his downfall.

Bullard said Satan told him: "Apparently, someone called Hansie Cronje has blamed me for the fact he received unspecified amounts of money from Indian bookmakers.

The suggestion I am somehow to blame for Cronje's crookery is bad for business. I'm losing respect down here

"Satan" in the Sunday Times

"I've thought of suing for defamation, but, believe it or not, I can't find a lawyer to represent me. I want you to put the record straight in the Sunday Times."

"I've never met this Cronje guy in my life and certainly never told him to throw cricket matches. The suggestion I am somehow to blame for Cronje's crookery is bad for business. I'm losing respect down here."

Satan complained about being dragged into "some squalid little sporting scrap" because Cronje "can't wisely exercise the free choice he's been given".

Academic study

Those logging on to the Supersport website learned that the Cronje case is to be studied in academic circles.

Students at Technikon Pretoria's sports science department will study the ethics of the Cronje case as part of their course.

Department head Professor Jacques Rossouw said they will be asked to discuss "Cronje's significance as a role model and the effect his fall from grace had on cricket and his fans".

Another academic said South Africa's sporting stars "must be thoroughly educated in business and sporting ethics long before they are exposed to the temptations of mega-star status".

World Cup boost?

Scenes of violence in Charleroi have heightened the jubilant mood in SA about the prospects of being awarded football's greatest honour

Business Day

While the world of South African cricket was taking a hammering, some in the football world had raised expectations that the outbreak of English football hooliganism would enhance South Africa's bid to host the 2006 World Cup.

Business Day warned against excessive optimism.

"Saturday's scenes of violence in Charleroi have heightened the already jubilant and upbeat, sometimes irrational, mood in SA about the prospects of being awarded football's greatest honour.

Brussels police tackle English hooligan

"While we have a strong bid and a strong case to host the tournament, our expectations must be tempered with a sense of reality," Business Day said. It was not so long ago that Cape Town's bid to host the Olympic Games was dashed.

"While England may have limited its chances, Germany remains a strong candidate." The votes takes place on July 6.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.