NEW: Can the Rainbow Nation ever shine through South Africa’s fog of racism?

Malwande Mhamhe is the same age as South Africa’s multiracial democracy. He will not be pulling on the green and gold of the Springboks at the World Cup this month, but studying in university lecture halls and libraries in Johannesburg. His professional playing career appears finished at 21, a tale of what might have been.

For this he blames racism, which he contends is still rife in the sport despite the fall of apartheid in 1994. Mhamhe claims that he was offered a derisory club contract, told to work twice as hard as white players and warned that he should learn Afrikaans – the language of a white minority descended from predominantly Dutch settlers – if he wanted a future in the game.

“It’s like you don’t belong, like ‘What are you doing here?’” the flanker says. “It’s not a matter of talent. It’s a matter of opportunities. Black people are not being given these opportunities.”

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