Sport ministry won't 'hire and fire national coaches'

Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile on Thursday rejected suggestions he wanted to appoint national sport coaches.

Media reports attributed to Stofile about Springbok coach Peter de Villiers recently had “portrayed the minister as having powers to hire and fire national coaches—something that is not true”, the ministry said in a statement.

“The minister neither has powers nor ambition to hire and fire national coaches,” it said.

Stofile had simply cautioned De Villiers against speaking on matters that could best be handled by somebody employed to speak on behalf of the SA Rugby Union (Saru).

“His [De Villiers’] statements, the minister said, could come back to haunt him as they may later be ‘used to cloud the assessment of his work as coach’.”

Stofile said did not doubt De Villiers’ coaching skills or achievements and that he found him to be a good coach whose record spoke for itself.

“The caution from the minister is not intended to stop Mr De Villiers from talking to the media. It is the issues he tackles, that he needs to re-look [at].

That said, how Mr De Villiers interacts with the media going forward is between him and his employers.

“It is unfortunate that the statements attributed to the minister were mainly based on interpretation of other media reports,” the ministry said.

Saru should appoint a good spokesperson and allow the coach to focus on what he knew—coaching.

“When results become negative after matches, the coach’s statements will come back to haunt him. They will be used to cloud the assessment of his work as a coach,” the ministry said. - Sapa