Scandal fit for a King

Ho hum, another World Cup squad announcement, another crisis. In 1995 Tiaan Strauss was left out and a Transvaal clique was to blame. In 1999 the unlucky man was Gary Teichmann and a Cape cabal ruled Springbok rugby. This time around, Geo Cronje and Quinton Davids have been left out and, clearly, the whole of white South Africa is to blame.

Amid all the mud-slinging, backtracking and name-calling, one statement stands out for its balance and calm appraisal of the situation.

Rather surprisingly it comes from SA Rugby managing director Rian Oberholzer. In the wake of Springbok communications manager Mark Keohane’s resignation, Oberholzer told Beeld: ‘It is a pity that his knowledge is lost to Springbok rugby. It is important to get to the bottom of the matter. However, we should be mindful not to pre-empt the outcome, thereby making the same mistakes that were made with Geo Cronje.”

Wow! Did you notice that? An acknowledgement that mistakes were made by SA Rugby and the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu).

There’s something that doesn’t happen every day. As for Keohane’s ‘knowledge”, be certain that it will appear in print sooner rather than later, for he has just relinquished a R50 000 a month sinecure with SA Rugby and needs to start earning a living again.

Be certain, too, that Keohane’s words — when they appear — will carry rather more sensation than anything that may come out of the new investigation ordered by Sarfu. On Wednesday it was announced that former judge Edwin King would head up the process, assisted by the vice-principal of Stellenbosch University, Julian Smith, and a Cape Town-based advocate, Nona Gosa.

Remember that this is the same ‘Sharky” King who presided over the investigation into match-fixing in cricket. Remember how that investigation got to the root of the problem, identified the guilty parties and handed out severe penalties?

If so, you’re remembering wrong, for after six months of questioning, much of it in front of the cameras, nothing was revealed. The Indian police did not, after all, make the infamous tapes of cellphone conversations between Hansie Cronje and various bookmakers available, and three years later there is reason to believe they never existed.

So, based on what Sarfu has told us and what we already know, let us assume two things: nothing precipitate will be done and the World Cup will have come and gone by the time we know that for certain.

Sarfu CEO Mvuleli Ncula is an honourable man, but he is fooling himself when he says, ‘Mr Justice King has assured me that the investigation will be completed as soon as possible. I would like to see the report compiled as long as possible before the squad’s departure for the World Cup on October 4.”

Time is money and the legal profession is not known for its haste, Mvuleli.

Rather more to the point is this statement released by Anthony Mackaiser, SA Rugby’s senior manager, communications: ‘While the exact time-frame of the investigation cannot be determined, Sarfu is hopeful that it can be concluded in the shortest possible time. The findings will only be released once the investigation is complete.”

Therein lies the rub. Unlike the UCB investigation, you’ll get to see the findings, not the process.

There are already myriad subplots here, but essentially everyone wants to know the answer to just one question: is South African rugby racist?

The answer may be yes, depending on your parameters, but you won’t get that from the findings of the King inquiry.

In the greater scheme of things South African rugby is absolutely irrelevant. The ideals of the Rainbow Nation are in tatters not because of a few muddied oafs with funny shaped balls, but because a decade of free and fair governance has taught us one important lesson: we actually don’t like each other very much.

What is far more important and far more likely to help us live in peace for centuries to come is to understand that it doesn’t matter. A poet, ee cummings, summed it up best when he wrote: ‘The ideal of democracy fulfils itself only if and when society fails to suppress the individual.”

Understand that and you understand that quotas of any kind, be they based on race, height, weight or any arbitrary attribute you care to name, are doomed to failure. Democracy is based on cummings’s principle and if you don’t like it you don’t have to accept it, just don’t pretend you’re living in a democratic country.

None of which excuses any member (or former member) of the Springbok squad for actions, which may, or may not have been racist, but neither does it excuse Sarfu for releasing a deliberately ambiguous statement in an attempt to brush Geo Cronje and Quinton Davids under the carpet (that’s some big carpet).

This is what was sent to the press at noon last Saturday, five and a half hours ahead of the Springbok squad announcement: ‘The investigation has found that while certain team protocols had been breached in terms of players swapping rooms without permission, there was not conclusive evidence that this activity was based on racism.

‘The investigation found that there was not conclusive evidence to support or justify that Cronje had breached Sarfu’s Code of Conduct. Therefore, disciplinary proceedings against him based on the acts of racism were accordingly not warranted or justified at this stage.

”Should further evidence or information reveal a possible breach of the Code of Conduct by Cronje, the matter will be reinvestigated and, if appropriate, the necessary disciplinary action will be taken.”

Or, to put it another way, we think he’s a racist, but we can’t prove it. If we can find someone dumb enough to put his career on the line to prove it we’ll let you know. Now, who’s expendable?