South African swimmer Roland Schoeman sent social media into a frenzy when he publicly announced his bid to campaign for the Sports Minister portfolio, in an open application sent to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Except, in his brave attempt at reinventing the wheel, the 41-year-old may have not considered the fact that Twitter Sherlocks would work overtime in digging up his dirt.
Roland Schoeman makes brave ministerial bid
In the open letter to the president, Schoeman leaned on the high impression count his tweet, posted on Sunday 1 August, garnered as a qualifying factor to warrant inclusion as a nominee in Ramaphosa’s next Cabinet reshuffle.
I’d like to put my name up for nomination for South African minister of sport in @PresidencyZA upcoming cabinet reshuffle.
— Roland Schoeman (@Rolandschoeman) August 1, 2021
While this rumoured reshuffle has not been vetted by any official sources, the swimmer supposed that the president was on the verge of implementing changes to his Cabinet due to “the ineptitude that many ministers continue to display.”
“One gets the feeling that South Africans are tired of being served by ministers that seem to only serve themselves, at the expense of ordinary citizens,” he said.
Schoeman called on Ramaphosa to make appointments based on merit and for the Sports portfolio, which has since been married to the department of Arts and Culture, the swimmer put his resume forward for consideration.
in his own writing, Schoeman listed his qualifications and accolades, which include:
- A BA Degree in Psychology from the University of Arizona
- Certificates on Life Coaching, Neurolinguistic Programming, Sports Management and Marketing;
- Three Olympic medals in four appearances
- Five world championship medals
- 12 Commonwealth Games honours
- Recipient of the Order of Ikhamanga
- Arizona Sports Hall of Fame inductee
- Le’Quipe Magazine’s Top 10 Most Influential Sports Stars in South Africa 2010
Schoeman pleaded with Ramaphosa to consider his open application and choose a minister “who is more interested in getting our young men and women to the point of success on major international platforms.”
Old racist remarks haunt Schoeman’s brave bid
Everything Schoeman listed in his resume highlighted his best traits, a world champion with a dream and a purpose. However, the merits he listed were polluted by an old scandal that resurfaced after social media Sherlocks did some digging.
Turns out, Schoeman was meddled in a racism row back in 2010 when he competed at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India.
As reported by Reuters, the South African swimmer came in second place in the Men’s 50m freestyle swimming finals and out of frustration at the heckling from the crowd, he referred to Indian fans as ‘monkeys’.
“You know it’s an absolute disgrace. There’s a guy in the stands just shouting, shouting, shouting. It’s unacceptable to be at a professional event like this and have the stand and have people going on like monkeys. That’s not acceptable. Someone like that does not deserve to be here,” he said at the time.
Facing backlash from the remarks, Schoeman did a u-turn and tried to downplay his comments by stating that in South Africa “when someone calls you a monkey they mean hooligan.”
“The comment was aimed at only one individual who was acting like a hooligan,” he explained.
Whether this will have any bearing whatsoever on his ministerial bid remains to be seen. At this time, at least, the Presidency has not met Schoeman’s application with a response.