Legendary Springboks captain reveals ‘amazing’ call from Nelson Mandela after personal milestone
Ex-Springboks John Smit and Jake White with former President Nelson Mandela.
Former Springboks captain John Smit revealed that he got a special call from ex-South Africa President and icon Nelson Mandela after the birth of his first child.
Smit was a legendary captain for the Springboks and still holds the record for the most caps as skipper in green and gold with a whopping 83 over a period that included a Rugby World Cup title.
Mandela’s link with the Springboks
The hooker’s reign with the Boks came after Mandela’s pivotal term as South Africa’s first President post-Apartheid where the inspirational figure used the Springboks to unite the country during the 1995 Rugby World Cup which was eventually won by the men in green and gold.
Mandela would maintain a close relationship with the team and he would frequently visit the side, with Smit previously stating that the Springboks never lost after Madiba popped in.
Smit spoke about when his first child had just been born and the former President gave him a call to congratulate him as well as offer some parental advice.
“I’m on my way to training. I’ve had my first child born and I get a call and, uh, there’s someone on the other side says, ‘Would you please hold for the president?’ And I’m like, this is definitely a Butch (James). Someone’s having a go, but I’m not, I’m not sure,” Smit said on The Good, the Bad and Rugby ANZ podcast.
The mark of the man
“So I hold and genuinely the next oke that comes on the line is, is Madiba (Nelson Mandela) says, ‘ah, John,’ he says, ‘I just wanted to say congratulations.’ He says, ‘You think it’s stressful to be a Springbok and play Test matches, but no stress beats being a father of a daughter.’
“Anyway, I mean, three, four minute chats, but I mean, he had, he didn’t have to do that. No. Yeah. I mean, the first guy to congratulate me was Madiba (Nelson Mandela), you know, which is amazing. And he’s just such a, I mean, there’s no, there’s no better word and you’ll know, but he’s just such a lekker oke.”
Mandela, who passed away in 2013, would have been delighted to see how Dr Rassie Erasmus has once again used the Springboks as a tool to unite the nation as he did nearly 30 years ago in the infancy of democratic South Africa.
