Anyone who has been to Potchefstroom will tell you that very little goes on in the North West town.

It’s quiet and dull, the sort of place you’d want to retire to, or perhaps spend an afternoon fishing on the banks of the Mooi River.

But in April, something special happened in Potchefstroom. South Africa’s best athletes, led in the main by Wayde van Niekerk, engineered a social media campaign to fill up the local stadium, venue for the national championship.

People poured in as Van Niekerk, Akani Simbine and others brought their glory games to the local track. It was Luvo Manyonga, the sometimes wayward athlete, who produced the greatest single moment by a sportsman on local soil in 2017 by leaping 8,65m for a new national record.

It put the lid on a memorable weekend. Manyonga was the best of them and would go on to win gold at the world championship in London, alongside Caster Semenya and Van Niekerk.

If these triumphs represented the peaks of 2017, the troughs came two months apart when, first, Joost van der Westhuizen, succumbed to the devastating illness that had torn away at his muscle. Then, in April, charismatic boxing trainer Nick Durandt was killed in a motorbike accident.

Adding to the wretched theme, the sorry mess of Durban’s Commonwealth Games bid hit its nadir when the city lost its hosting rights amid much acrimony. Not many tears were shed.

There were few highlights in a largely miserable rugby year, but the spectacular pass by the Stormers’ Dillyn Leyds to SP Marais against the Chiefs went viral. It was a moment that allowed us to wonder at the possibilities of locals playing with greater freedom, but it was a false, deadening dawn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeKx_5N19kk

The Springboks never kicked on, the 57-0 humiliation by the All Blacks confirming a sad, sorry trajectory brightened a little by Malcolm Marx’s heroic performance in an epic 25-24 reverse to the same opponents later.

At least none were bitten by a lion, the fate suffered by Welsh player Scott Baldwin who came close to losing his hand at Bloemfontein zoo after foolishly petting the animal.

The zeitgeist went from bad to worse when heavily fancied South Africa lost out to France for the 2023 World Cup. The bitterness still lingers.

Fortunately, there were the Blitzboks, who refused to be swept up by the sense of gloom and won the World Series in May.

It wasn’t popular in Durban, but we also saw the Kings defeat the Sharks, a staggering result given the primacy of the Sharks and the hand-to-mouth existence of the Kings, the little team that could. Neutrals, encouraged by the possibility of an upset, cheered heartily.

There were no neutrals as far as Gift Ngoepe was concerned; the country applauded as he became the first African to play Major League Baseball, for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He might have been alone and far away, but he’d have felt the collective pride from back home as he emerged from the dugout to play second base.

SA golfers have been succeeding overseas for years and in 2017 it was the turn of Branden Grace, his 62 in the third round at The Open the lowest score in major history. To think of the names that have come before and all the great single rounds is to give sustenance to the rarity of the feat.

The Global T20 vanished before it had even begun, but at least we got to see Maritzburg College old boy David Miller claim the fastest T20 century against Bangladesh, skinning them alive to score 101 off 36 balls.

If you thought Seabelo Senatla was quick, he had nothing on WBO bantamweight champion Zolani Tete, who last month obliterated Siboniso Gonya in 11 seconds, a world record.

If it was a generally forgettable year for local sport, Bruce Fordyce typically offered up dark humour after being mugged on a training run: “They took my takkies, which were old and smelled of cheese.”

But the line of the year undoubtedly belonged to one-time Bulls boykie Derick Hougaard, who tweeted “Seeing the images of @TigerWoods Just leaves me with a heart of sympathy. I have been there. And n dark place to get out. Dick deep champ.”

Yes, quite. – © Sunday Tribune

When you’re eating baked beans out of a tin can and wondering where the next meal is coming from, you probably don’t shed too many tears about the state of the local horse racing industry.

Yet the two scenarios are inextricably linked by the controversy raging around Steinhoff, the global retailer whose market capitalisation was wiped out almost entirely in the wake of damning allegations of company fraud. Among those affected are thousands of members of the Government Employees Pension Fund, who could lose about R12,5-billion in investments, a devastating consequence of what you might generously call exotic book-keeping.

Most fingers are pointed at Markus Jooste, CEO of the company, who also happens to be the most powerful figure in SA horse racing.

He had a big hand in SA rugby, too, more of which I’ll get to later.

Jooste was a high-flyer, but not in the traditional sense. He was neither flamboyant nor verbose, keeping very much to himself, according to some of his acquaintances I spoke to this week. He owned more thoroughbreds than anyone in South Africa – around 250 raced in his colours – and spent more than anyone at the yearling sales. He also had a seat at SA racing’s boardroom table, so was heavily invested across the sport.

It was more than just business though. Jooste once told an interviewer of how he’d get into his hotel room late at night and unwind by firing up his laptop to watch his horses racing. He had fun with racing, which allowed him to take his mind off business.

Yet he wasn’t a funny guy, rather the stereotypical accountant who kept a stiff upper lip.

Now, those late-night celebratory dinners he so enjoyed after a big day at the races are likely over. Worse, those workers who depended on his largesse, and indeed the many jobs he created, will be enduring a torrid time while investigations and enquiries continue.

For a sport that already functions on the margins and must routinely come up with creative ways of making it in a tough market, it is a shattering blow.

It may well be a long time before Jooste even goes to the races. He’ll have horses running at the Met in Cape Town next month, but already labour forces are moving against him. The unions want him banned, and they want the sponsors to act too.

Sport sometimes carries on as if in a bubble, but these are real world problems that cannot possibly be masked by the parade ring or the high-stakes glamour of a major race day. You cannot reasonably oversee a company blowout and then pop up at the races, not even in SA where ethics and morality are so frequently blurred.

By all accounts, the Steinhoff business was a house of cards that spectacularly collapsed. Local entrepreneur Magda Wierzycka described it as close to a corporate-structured Ponzi scheme as one can get.

Thus, it was little surprise to spot Schalk Burger snr’s tweet on Sunday. “Sorry to mention this but Blitzbokke playing in Steinhoff jerseys is disgraceful given the pensioners and older people having lost their savings! SA must get a morality check,” wrote the former Springbok.

To be fair to the Blitzbokke, in a technical sense the jury is still out on Steinhoff – things might smell funny, but no-one has yet been convicted of anything. Only the public court of opinion has ruled.

Yet, you would have to have your head in the sand to imagine that rugby will be unaffected. You can hardly be sponsoring a lark like rugby when pensioners are seeing their savings drained. It gets worse because Steinhoff is also a major backer of varsity rugby.

The Sevens team has enjoyed great success, chiefly because it has been well resourced. This blowout could seriously imperil their ambitions, especially with the sport sponsorship market so tough.

The same is true of varsity rugby, which depends to a large degree on the Steinhoff cheque.

No-one can be sure where local racing is headed, but there will be an enormous void where the sport’s big man once stood.

He has since gone to ground, his humiliation complete.

Jooste’s reckoning will near, though, as the screams of racing and rugby echo long in his ears. – © Sunday Tribune