The inquiry led by retired judge Edwin King into alleged racism in South African rugby has been postponed until early next year to allow the Springboks to prepare unburdened for the Rugby World Cup in Australia next month.
This was revealed at a special media conference in Durban on Tuesday night attended by Minister of Sport and Recreation Ngconde Balfour in which Springbok coach Rudolf Straeuli and manager Gideon Sam apologised for an error in judgement in the manner in which they handled the Geo Cronje and Quinton Davids race issue.
Both apologised to the nation as well as to the MD of SA Rugby, Rian Oberholzer.
According to South African Rugby Football Union president Silas Nkanunu, this is to give the Springboks 2003 World Cup party ”the green light to concentrate
unhindered by outside influences in their task in hand to bring back the William Webb Ellis Trophy to South Africa”.
Balfour urged the public and all stakeholders ”to support the team to the utmost”.
Balfour said that the gvernment backed the team and his appeal was: ”Let all South Africans support these 30 young men. Do not let us make them the victims in our attempt to find the real culprits behind the developments of recent weeks.
”I am urging you come forward in great numbers and while I commit myself to exposing all the wrongs that might exist in rugby I am also committed to seeing
this team off to the World Cup.
”We are not sending them off under a cloud of uncertainty. We are saying to them — do your duty for your country. But also you must know that when you return the need to address the issues that are before us will have to be dealt with in an honest, forthright and sincere manner.”
It means that the Springbok squad can now go ahead with all their preparations during their three-week camp in Durban without having to give evidence on any aspects of the goings-on in Pretoria.
”It comes as a great relief to one and all,” said Sam.
The manager and coach Straeuli have retained their positions in the team for the World Cup campaign after their sensational letter.
”We may have committed an error of judgement in the manner in which we handled the issue but declare that at the time and with the limited knowledge at our disposal we believed our actions were in the best interests of the team and in their ongoing preparations for the World Cup campaign,” said their joint statement.
In reply Oberholzer recommended that in the interests of the team, the sponsors and the supporters and the nation as a whole the apology of the two officials be accepted and that with this in mind they supported their coach and manager.
”Accordingly they have been allowed to continue with their duties even though Sarfu views the matter in an extremely serious light. At the same time Sarfu has acknowledged that elements of racism and prejudice continue to beset their organisation as it does in other social institutions.
”With this in mind Sarfu has resolved to widen the scope of the King committee’s brief and to involve other stakeholders to investigate the matter in its entirety in the new year well after the World Cup tournament is completed.”
The statement said that the committee’s terms of reference would be extended to include all tiers of rugby from club level upwards to assist Sarfu in dealing with current and general racial allegations and accusations.
Straeuli and Sam said that they had always tried to engender a spirit of non-racialism within the team and that was not always an easy task ”when one views it against the background of South Africa’s recent past as a nation.
”In hindsight we acted in haste in not ensuring that the matter was further ventilated and that we accept that we may have erred in this regard.”
They concluded: ”We wish to assure one and all that we do not and shall not tolerate racism and prejudice in the Springbok squad.”
Earlier in the day the Springboks one and all united behind their management team in an act of solidarity in which each one expressed confidence in their World Cup unity in a sheer case of ”one for all and all for one”.
At an informal luncheon they made it obvious that there was no split in the camp.
Sarfu media spokesperson Anthony MacKaiser said that the inquiry, which was to have got under way this week, had been postponed to give the players a chance to prepare for the World Cup free of what appears to be growing into a protracted and highly controversial issue after a dispute over television coverage.
SABC lawyers were expected to meet King and two co-panellists to discuss the possible live broadcast of the hearings, following a court decision on Monday that bars the broadcaster from the closed-door proceedings.
SABC lawyers met the Sarfu legal team instead of King, and were on Tuesday afternoon still in discussions with them.
Sarfu appointed King to lead the inquiry last week after 23-year-old Bulls lock Geo Cronje was expelled from a World Cup training camp for allegedly refusing to share a room with his black teammate Quinton Davids.
King said the inquiry would focus on a report by former Springbok spokesperson Mark Keohane, who resigned last Tuesday after a Sarfu inquiry found there was no conclusive evidence that Cronje was guilty of racism. — Sapa