Hype, Hubris, Hansie - and the Lord Our God

When I started working on research and digging up the history on Hansie, this was the title that sprung to mind. It was based on what you got googling 'Hansie' a few weeks ago (that has changed quite a lot recently). The title's allusion to 'Hype' really reflects the way - in Hansie's heyday - he was such an iconic South African. Loved by us and loved - it seemed - by the world.

Hansie lived in that warm Mandela time when we also won the Rugby World Cup - where South Africa seemed a blessed country, healing, stepping forward heroically, reclaiming all the lost time, lost lives. Hansie epitomised that exuberance, that passionate embrace. The prodigal country had returned, and Hansie was one of front runners in our reclaiming our place on the world's stage.

During the inquisition into Hansie, there was also a lot of 'Hype', and if Hansie's fame was a high pressure system, the inquisition was a series of cold fronts, low pressures that swept by again and again, seeking to bring equilibrium to equation. I don't know if you remember, but the headlines then were quite nasty. Newspapers sometimes attempt to assuage, mimic and even lead their reader's sentiments. I mean they go beyond reporting to inciting emotions. Recently we've seen Sunday Times headlines yelling at Mugabe to 'pack his bags', or calling the Minister of Health a Liar. This isn't always credible reporting as much as it is a sort of sensational barometer of an estimated average sentiment. With Hansie it was 'The Devil Made Me Do it' and other 'traitor' based allegations.

The Hubris though was in part Hansie's and ours (and the media's) in collaboration. Hubris is a good way to summarise Hansie's attitude to cricket, and to living. Hubris is not necessarily a bad thing. Love is filled with hubris. So is hate. Wiki defines Hubris as follows:
...a term used in modern English to indicate overweening pride, self-confidence, superciliousness, or arrogance, often resulting in fatal retribution. In ancient Greece, hubris referred to actions which, intentionally or not, shamed and humiliated the victim, and frequently the perpetrator as well. It was most evident in the public and private actions of the powerful and rich. The word was also used to describe actions of those who challenged the gods or their laws, especially in Greek tragedy, resulting in the protagonist's downfall.

Hubris, though not specifically defined, was a legal term and was considered a crime in classical Athens. It was also considered the greatest sin of the ancient Greek world.

I went to Grey College, and so I saw Hansie through many years develop the incredible confidence of a school that hero-worshipped him, and only in the Vrysaat agterplaas can a newspaper like Die Volksblad fawn so exclusively over their hero as this newspaper did. Right now Die Volksblad's golden idol is Bloem's own Ryk Neethling (soon to do a book launch just outside the city).

And then there was also Hansie, the person - beyond the Hype, beyond the Hubris - the guy who went hunting with his boet and with an animal in his sights, suddenly felt the terrible loss of his own life and youth...at the point of pulling the trigger and taking this animal's life, he felt his own life slipping away... and as my research continued, I started to read his biography - by Garth King. It's a good book in the sense that it is comprehensive. What I appreciated immensely from reading the biography was it took me back to my alma mater, and made me see a dimension to Hansie, and even my school, that I saw once again...and then beyond that...all the going's on that I didn't see.
I remember seeing the guys running around Loch Logan, but I had no idea they had been running to Naval Hill as schoolboys 365 days a year. I had a pretty unpleasant high school experience at Grey College, and I expected King's book to somehow reinforce the not-so-great memories I had of High School. Some people hate Grey College, and in a bizarre way, I expected - specifically in the sense of following the Hansie story at Grey - that I might find myself agreeing with them. I didn't. At Grey if you were a good cricketer or rugby player you were a god. The teachers loved you, so did everyone else. I excelled at swimming, athletics to some extent, and hockey. I was still a nobody, an Engelse bliksem, a rooinek, and a Dutchman. My point is I am not part of the Cult of Hansie, or the Cult of Grey College. In the movie the footage of the school comes through as very authentic, a point Frans also made to me. I have to say, I truly believe the highest virtue there is is probably loyalty - and Grey is all about that. Yes, there is misplaced loyalty, but we live in a time where loyalty is seldom seen.

I experienced a major paradigm shift - quite unexpected - reading the biography. I realised, for example, how hard Hansie worked from the get go. And that he really did deserve the accolades he received. He achieved a great many things, and he worked bloody hard for it.

And then after reading the book I phoned up Frans Cronje and spoke about the movie and the book. Frans asked what I'd thought about the book and I told him I had been unexpectedly moved by the book, and this freed Frans to speak sincerely about his feelings. He even shared with me that he still has dreams of Hansie, and always 'wakes up sad'. It was at this point that I realised an article titled Hype, Hubris, Hansie - and the Lord Our God was not only inappropriate, it wasn't true, and it was misleading. It also seemed to swing wildly away from the emergent bottom lines of this story. One bottom line was this:

Hansie got screwed by the bookies because they felt he had betrayed their trust. They had insidiously attempted to win him over, and he had played them, and when they lost a phenomenal amount (expecting Gibbs to lose a wicket at 20 runs etc), they decided to get Hansie back. The irony is that while Hansie isn't innocent, and while he was greedy, he was punished to a large extent for failing to deliver to the bookies. Not many South Africans seem to see this subtle but important point.

Yes, it is true that Hansie should never have entertained the bookies in the first place. Yes he should have brooked no favours from them. So too should you not ride over 60km in a 60km/h zone, and so too should I pay my TV license fee. Nobody is perfect. We all makes mistake, and yes, Hansie made a big one. I think his mentor Mr. Volsteedt (principal at Grey College) provides the best example. Vollies had the most to lose by openly supporting Hansie. He may have felt that supporting Hansie in the full glare of the public spotlight would attract shame on the school. Vollies went with his gut and elected to say Grey supported Hansie but not what he did. You might think that a facile attitude, but I wonder how you would treat a brother, a son, or a father that made a public blapse. Would you join the madding crowds, add your voice to the clamour? Or would you be like a loving, loyal (Heavenly) father?

For me, what irks me the most about the Hansie story is 'the Lord our God'. Even in the book, I didn't like the amount of page space devoted to what I consider Christian schmaltz. In the movie, Hansie's baptism and rebirth irked me as I don't subscribe to that (although I used to once). I also remember back in 2000 I felt an awkward feeling of anger when Hansie was on trial that he still wasn't being entirely honest. In this context, the idea of God and truth becomes a bit flawed and suspect, lame and ridiculous for me. However, having read the biography, I realised it wasn't as simple or as black and white as that. Initially Hansie did lie, and tried to keep what he had done a secret. Then he faxed a confession to 6 different people. And then his lawyer told him to admit as little as possible. In the end, it was Hansie's own confession that provided virtually all the ammo the media and the prosecution would need. No cellphone transcripts ever saw the light of day.

When Hansie was at the Centre for the Book I wasn't far away. I was studying up the road at an advertising school in Cape Town. But it did occur to me that at Grey, it is not difficult to develop the hubris that comes from the combination of collectively believing in God, the confidence that comes from being a dominant sporting force in the region, and the way the boys idolised their heroes. Hubris is at its most dangerous when mixed in with religion, and that's what happened to Hansie:

In the film 300 the narrator says “The God King (Xerxes) has betrayed a fatal flaw: hubris. Easy to taunt, easy to trick ...

Having watched the movie, I can honestly say it is not a perfect portrait of Hansie. There are some mistakes. But I think the movie can be forgiven for its faults - it is good enough. I was moved. Many reviewers were crying in the film, and I understood what Frans meant when he said the film really comes into its own from the King Commission onwards. For me it is a really sad story; especially where we see Hansie all alone, in the dark, in a plane buffeted by a ferocious storm. And in that dark and terrifying place his life came to an end.
How sad.
I think what the Hansie parable teaches us is how radically our lives can change, and how cruel life can become (even if we are at fault and 'deserve' to account for our sins). I think if you closely follow the story of Hansie's life, you cannot come away other than to feel tremendous compassion for him. He worked really really hard, and achieved so much, but the story doesn't end happily ever after. What disturbs me are the clever-as-I-am articles like this one, comparing Hansie to Elvis, where the writer basks in his own wordplay glory but really has no real sensitivity (and I believe a very limited understanding) to the real life person he is writing about. I find it really sad to see this.

If the point of having heroes like good Hansie is so that we can learn from his example, surely the point of having villains like bad Hansie is also so that we can learn from his example? Because, after all, both are undeniably the same Hansie. And in fact, if you're a fan of Shakespeare, or the Bible, or the Harry Potter movies, you'll probably agree with me that all the best heroes are the complicated ones.

It's like being a fan of the cool Elvis from the 60s, but getting upset when people talk about the drug-raddled Elvis from the 70s (or "The Fat Bastard Years", as my friend Stuart refers to them). Both Elvises are important to fans of music, and you can approve of the early Elvis at the same time as thinking the stuff he made in the 70s is rubbish. [Continues below]

clipped from www.news24.com Both have fanatical followers who believe that they are guardians of the true flame, and that only they have the right to talk about, and judge, Elvis or Hansie. And both have become much more than the people they were - they're now part of the language of culture, and as such belong to everyone. One of the readers commented on the "Hansie deserves closure" column, and wrote this: "DW says: I read the Hansie Cronje story and I think he got a raw deal. He was wrong and was rightfully punished but he was definitely used as a scapegoat to try to teach everyone else a lesson, a lesson clearly not yet learnt as there is still match fixing in various sports." It's an intelligent comment, although the conclusion is flawed. Hansie is being used as an example, rather than a scapegoat ("scapegoat" implies that nobody else is being accused of the same thing). [In fact, Hansie was the only one accused - nothing happened to Gibbs or Boje or Donald or any of the others implicated. Hansie took the fall for everyone. He was a scapegoat AND and example.]

Funny thing that...

18/06/2008 12:37
Hansie was dragged off to court and went through all kinds of legal BS, lost his job and was banned from cricket for life. At the end of the day he was just a captain of a cricket team. Mr Zuma on the other hand was Vice Prez the country and took part in some seriously dodgy deals with some dodgy people went to court for rape etc etc and he gets made president of the ANC and possibly the country. Make's you wonder? If you're an ANC politician the law does not apply to you? - Mikey

The Sunday Independent has a movie review titled Film, like its hero, has feet of clay. Mary Corrigall spends 95% of her article ripping the movie to shreds, calling the movie a schmaltzy, made for TV disappointment. She says it is an embarrassment to the film making community of South Africa.

I don't know if that is a very nice thing to say. Mary - really? Corrigall also criticises the director for the movie's singular 'pot shot' at the media. She argues that the director ought to have used this 'valuable screen time' otherwise. Actually, there is one very short scene - perhaps 10 seconds long - where one previously obsequious reporter changes his tune on Hansie. The media did far worse - so I think Corrigall is hypercritical and overly strict in her assessment. She describes Hansie in the film as 'nauseatingly squeaky-clean'.

I don't know if we watched the same movie. The movie I saw, Hansie accepts bribes over the phone. A large part of the movie focuses on his dealing with bookmakers. What's squeaky clean about that?
In parallel to Corrigall's almost entirely negative review, I have one good thing to say about her attitude, and also Chris Roper and all the other people who think Hansie is one of South Africa's biggest jerks: at least it says something about the standards we feel our heroes ought to reach. We don't like them to make mistakes, disappoint us, they must be honest. Is that about right? I would love to see those standards, those judgements, focused on our political leaders, the career criminals, the serial killers. It's great to have these high standards of honesty, but please apply them to the real world, to our crime-infested country, to the daily corruption we read about in the newspaper, and also, at a last resort to oneself. Right? If you find yourself hesitating after this paragraph you might feel the need to secure your bullshit.

I guess, in the end, Hansie's legacy - when viewed up close - leaves you either hating him more, or loving him more, and that is a choice I think. And that choice says a lot about the person you are.

Read my Movie Review of the Hansie movie here.
Read my article published in the Sunday Independent here.