Do we like Siya Kolisi?
Our score: 9 out of 10. He grew up poor, became the Springboks' first Black captain, and keeps speaking up on racism, hunger and violence against women, with only tabloid noise on the other side.
Siya Kolisi grew up in severe poverty in Zwide township, born to a teenage mother, and he sometimes went to bed hungry. His mother died when he was 15, and he went to live with his grandparents. An anonymous donor later paid for him to attend Grey High School in Port Elizabeth, where he learned English and his rugby took off.
From there he came up through the Stormers and Western Province, and later became the first Black captain to win the Rugby World Cup. The Springboks have kept him as skipper, with Rassie Erasmus saying in August 2026 “Siya is our captain at this stage.” He is heading back to the Stormers in July 2026 on a three-year deal, taking a pay cut to be near his family.
On the harm test, there is nothing nasty to find. In 2020 he said he had “failed as a leader” by staying quiet on racial inequality, and urged people to take up the hard conversations. On gender-based violence he said men should be doing the talking and holding each other to account. I found nothing from him on LGBTQ+ rights either way, and nothing on vaccines or climate, so that is a gap rather than a pass or a fail on those.
The company he keeps looks clean too. His latest big commercial deal is a 12-month brand partnership with Amazon South Africa to March 2027, and Amazon will support the Kolisi Foundation's education and community programmes as part of it. Nothing I found ties him to anyone pushing grievance or conspiracy stuff.
The recent stuff is a call to action. In September 2026 he said on Instagram that the men of the country need to accept that they are the problem, and asked sporting figures and podcasters to use their platforms for action, not just awareness. He added that he wants to be part of the solution, which is not a line many athletes in his spot bother with.
The mess is mostly in his personal life. After a separation from his wife of eight years, he reportedly confirmed a new relationship in January 2026, and the gossip outlets have been all over it. That is tabloid territory: no one alleges he did anything wrong, and the report I opened carries no statement from him about it.