Dec 13, 2007 – Football on Robben Island was not just a way of passing jail time. It was an exercise in discipline, teamwork and resistance.
The story of the prison’s football league is told in a new film recently premiered at a 2010 FIFA World Cup event and which will be screened internationally in early 2008.
More Than Just a Game is the story of the Makana Football Association, started by a group of political prisoners on the island in 1966 after a battle with authorities for permission to play the beautiful game. It features the actors Mr Presley Chweneyagae, star of the Oscar-winning Tsotsi, Mr Wright Ngubeni, Mr Tshepo Maseko, Mr Merlin Balie and Mr Az Abrahams.
Mr Nelson Mandela did not play football, but he and some colleagues once secretly watched part of a game played in another section of the prison. Mr Ahmed Kathrada, who was sentenced to life imprisonment with Mr Mandela and seven others in June 1964, remembers once playing an informal game of football with Mr Mandela and others in prison.
Director Mr Junaid Ahmed and producers Mr Anant Singh and Ms Helena Spring attended the world premiere at Durban’s International Convention Centre at the end of November 2007. It kicked off a weekend of activities surrounding the preliminary draw of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and drew wide praise.
“The movie captures the essence of the contribution of football to the struggle,” said Mr Danny Jordaan, CEO of the FIFA 2010 Local Organising Committee.
“The football values of solidarity, democracy, discipline and respect for all should be more than ever preserved, protected and fought for,” said FIFA president Mr Sepp Blatter. “This is the lesson of the Makana Football Association and the lesson of football played on Robben Island.” He presented a certificate of honorary membership of FIFA to the Makana Football Association. This was accepted by its former chairman, Mr Dikgang Moseneke, who is now Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa, and by politician and businessman Mr Tokyo Sexwale – also a Makana player in his Robben Island days – and the five former prisoners through whom the film’s story is told: Mr Tony Suze, Mr Lizo Sitoto, Mr Mark Shinners, Mr Sedick Isaacs and Mr Marcus Solomon.