Daniel "Cheeky" Watson (born 1954) was one of the first white South African

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

players to participate in a mixed race rugby game, during the period when mixed-race activities were forbidden by

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

legislation.

History

Watson grew up on a farm near

Somerset East Somerset East ( af, Somerset-Oos) is a town in the Blue Crane Route Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was founded by Lord Charles Somerset in 1825. The Blue Crane Route follows the national road R63 from Pearston, via S ...

, in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. His father was a lay preacher who taught his sons Daniel, Valence, Ronald, and

Gavin Gavin is a male given name originating from Scotland. It is a variation on the medieval name Gawain, meaning "God send" or "white hawk" (or falcon). Sir Gawain was a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. '' Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' is an e ...

that all people are equal. Watson attended

Graeme College Graeme College is a public English medium high school for boys located in Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It caters for boys from Grade 00 to Grade 12 and offers both boarding and day options to its pupils. ...

boarding school in

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London. Makhanda is the largest town in the Makana ...

, where he began playing

. He later captained the Graeme College side. After completing compulsory National Service, Watson returned to Port Elizabeth, where he played for the

Crusaders Rugby Club The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

. As a 21-year-old, Watson played for the Eastern Province team which lost by 28 points to 13 to the visiting

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

in 1976. Mona Badela, black journalist and president of the KwaZakhele Rugby Union (Kwaru), invited him to practise his Christian convictions by coaching a black side in the townships. When Watson took the black rugby team to practise at the Saint George's sports ground in Port Elizabeth, they met with strong opposition. Watson was selected as a wing for the Junior Springboks in 1976. However he declined an invitation to participate in the trails for the 1976 senior Springbok team. He joined the

Spring Rose Rugby Football Club Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a he ...

in the black township of New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, which was affiliated with Kwaru. His wing partner was Zola Yeye, later manager of the 2007 Springbok squad On 10 October 1976, Watson and Valence played with 13 black players for Kwaru against the South Eastern Districts Rugby Union (Sedru) in the

Dan Qeqe Dan Dumile Qeqe (died 2005) was a prominent sports administrator who struggled to establish non-racial sport in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. When the Bantu Administration Board denied him access for black teams to sports grounds, he r ...

stadium in KwaZakhele township. Local authorities and the Crusaders Rugby Club tried to dissuade him from participating Inter-racial sports meetings were at that time prohibited in terms of the apartheid-era

Group Areas Act Group Areas Act was the title of three acts of the Parliament of South Africa enacted under the apartheid government of South Africa. The acts assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a system o ...

and the Separate Amenities Act. Armored vehicles circled the stadium, and Watson and brother Valence had to lie flat on the floor of a taxi that transported black Africans. The black rugby team regularly stayed in the Watson's home. By 1978 the Watson family had been drawn into the anti-apartheid struggle, with dual membership in the then-banned

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

and

South African Communist Party The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by the governing Na ...

. Brother Ronnie reportedly gathered intelligence for such organisations The Watsons were subsequently threatened, ostracised, and shot at. Their home was burned down in 1986,. Friends stopped visiting, either because they were being threatened by authorities, or because they disagreed with the Watsons' political stance.

Eastern Province Rugby Union

Watson is a business consultant and was the president of the Eastern Province Rugby Union based in Port Elizabeth, which operates the

Eastern Province Elephants The Eastern Province Elephants (known as the Multisure Eastern Province Elephants for sponsorship reasons) are a South African rugby union team that participates in the annual Currie Cup and Rugby Challenge competitions. They are governed by the ...

Currie Cup The Currie Cup is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition, played each winter and spring (June to October), featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier ...

team and is also the co-owner of the

Southern Kings The Southern Kings were a South African professional rugby union team that competed in Super Rugby and Pro14. They were based in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape province and played their home matches at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. They we ...

team which was launched in June 2009 and will play Super Rugby from 2013 onwards. In February 2017 Watson stepped down from his role as president of the EPRU. The EPRU’s affairs had been placed into the administrative control of SA Rugby - at the union’s invitation - in April 2016 to help regularise the union’s financial affairs. Under Watson as president, the EPRU plunged into a financial crisis in 2015, with the union unable to pay players’ salaries; players were forced to accept food vouchers following the non-payment of salaries. SA Rugby was eventually forced to step in and take control of the union which was eventually liquidated.

Arrest on charges of fraud

On 31 March 2017 Watson and three others were arrested for fraud and appeared in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate's Court where they were released on bail. Their arrests come after an investigation by the

Hawks Hawks are birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are widely distributed and are found on all continents except Antarctica. * The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks and others. This subfamily ...

into money laundering and corruption related to the

Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality ( af, Nelson Mandelabaai Metropolitaanse Munisipaliteit; xh, uMasipala wase Nelson Mandela Bay or ''uMasipala waseBhayi'') is one of eight metropolitan municipalities (also called Category A municipalities) in So ...

Public Transport System.

Involvement in the career of his son, Luke Watson

Daniel Watson's son Luke Watson is also a rugby union footballer. Although he had many supporters in 2006, he was overlooked for selection by the 2007 World Cup winning Bok coach

Jake White Jake White (born 13 December 1963 as ''Jacob Westerduin'') is a professional rugby union coach and former coach of the South African national team – the ''Springboks'' – whom he coached to victory in 2007 Rugby World Cup and the 2004 Tr ...

. Watson attributed his son's non-selection to be due to his political activities a generation earlier. Luke Watson was imposed on the 2007 Springbok squad as a result of a direct order from SARU against the wishes of the Springbok selectors. In 2007 Watson stated he would not be supporting the Springboks at the World Cup in Paris because he did not believe the team was representative of the country. He also refused to comment on whether he supported John Smit as the captain. Watson has since told South African newspapers that son Luke never wanted to play for the Springboks under White. Watson Snr also boycotted his son's capping ceremony, in protest against Coach White’s attitude towards his son. On Monday 23 April 2012 the South African Presidency announced that Daniel Watson would be awarded the National

Order of Ikhamanga The Order of Ikhamanga is a South African honour. It was instituted on 30 November 2003 and is granted by the President of South Africa for achievements in arts, culture, literature, music, journalism, and sports (which were initially recognised b ...

in Silver for "his exceptional contribution to the field of sport, in particular rugby”. The South African government said Watson would be recognised for his excellent contribution towards the creation of non-racial rugby and his stand in the struggle for the creation of a non- racial, non-sexist and democratic society.

Sources

* * Clinton van der Berg and Lauren Cohen. "The gospel according to Luke", ''Sunday Times Online'', 20 May 2007. *

References