ANDY COLQUHOUN, Cape Town | Thursday 5.00pm
THE South African Rugby Football Union is girding itself for a legal battle over its right to introduce quotas to Currie Cup rugby.
Senior figures within the sport’s provincial unions and more particularly among the players are understood to have sought counsel’s opinion.
They have been advised that Sarfu’s “merit with bias” policy could be challenged on constitutional grounds as it unfairly discriminates against white players on the grounds of race.
An approach to the International Court for Arbitration in Sport in Lausanne is also being considered. The decisions of the court are binding on all signatories, including South Africa.
“If people have objections let’s get them out in the open and sort them out,” Sarfu chief executive Rian Oberholzer told ZA*SPORTS.
“I have heard some of these stories and if people want to object they can.” The reservations of players have been fuelled by a recent court case involving electricity giant Eskom. A female employee successfully challenged the company’s decision to promote a black employee ahead of her. Players’ union SARPA are being careful not to appear to be against the transformation of rugby into a truly representative sport but they have a duty to protect members’ interests.
The terminating of a white player’s contract in favour of a black player by a provincial union in the next few months could lead to a test case.
Provincial unions are under pressure to re-organise their squads in line with Sarfu’s quotas. Each Currie Cup team from 2000 will be required to have three black players in a squad of 22 of whom two must be in the starting XV.
This clearly means that white players in unions such as Natal, Free State, North West and others that have fielded largely white teams this season are going to find themselves out of work next season.
In a statement Sarpa committed itself to playing a “constructive role in the swift transformation of South African rugby.”
But it also underlined its belief that at “Springbok and senior provincial level the appointed coach be empowered to select the strongest team at his disposal without interference.”
That clearly cuts right across the grain of SARFU’s “merit with bias” policies.
The crunch is expected to come following the conclusion of this season’s Currie Cup campaign.
With a new standard players’ contract set to be thrashed out between Sarpa and the provinces’ new bargaining body Sareo (South African Rugby Employers’ Organisation) on Friday, an intensive period of recruitment is expected to get underway.
And that could expose an un-prepared playing pool to the realities of affirmative action for the first time. — MWP