Bongani Siqoko
The United Rugby Club, the only senior black club affiliated to the Golden Lions Rugby Football Union, is preparing to take the organisation to the human rights commission.
Club chair and former vice-chair of the then Transvaal Rugby Union, Brian van Rooyen, says the club took this decision this week because its team is “treated unfairly by the union because we are black”.
The key official they are targeting is the controversial boss of the South African Rugby Football Union, Louis Luyt, who is also president of the Golden Lions Rugby Football Union.
The move was also triggered by last month’s life ban imposed on Van Rooyen by the union.
“This racist organisation suspended me for life and asked the club to suspend me as well. The club … told [the Golden Lions Rugby Football Union] they won’t expel me.”
The club is waiting for the union’s to decide its fate before taking the matter to the commission.
In an attempt to draw the union attention and protest against the ban, the club has decided not to honour its fixtures.
Says rugby affairs manager Mark Alexander: “We won’t play fixtures until the Golden Lions Rugby Football Union addresses all our problems.”
Van Rooyen points out that the United Rugby Club is the only club in the first division which does not own a suite at the Ellis Park stadium.
All other clubs, which happen to be “white clubs”, own suites at the stadium, which is owned by Luyt. The United Rugby Club has been applying for a suite since 1994.
The club has had problems with the union since 1989, when it joined. It is a full member of the union and one of the strongest sides in the league. “What other reason can we give for not getting a suite, except that we are black?” says a fuming Van Rooyen.
He believes the union is doing everything possible to pull the club down. He says former white clubs are poaching his best players by promising large salaries. “And the union says there is nothing wrong with that. We don’t have enough money to maintain them, so they leave.”
The human rights commission will be the club’s last resort to justice, he believes.
The club is one of the biggest in the first division. Next year it will celebrate its 110th year of rugby in the area of Bosmont and Eldorado Park. It was formed after clubs affiliated to the former Transvaal Rugby Independent Football Union decided to form one team to represent the area.
It has also produced some of the country’s top rugby players, its most recent product being Jaco Booysens, the speedy winger who plays for the Gauteng Lions.