Rugby’s squabbling administrators have brought the game into disrepute, the chairperson of Parliament’s sport portfolio committee, Butana Komphela, said on Wednesday.
His comment, during a presentation to MPs by SA Rugby’s 2011 World Cup bid committee, came as the Democratic Alliance accused Minister of Sport and Recreation Makhenkesi Stofile of ”taking sides” with his brother Mike in the row.
Mike is vice-president of SA Rugby, and has been engaged in public exchanges with deputy president Andre Markgraaff since details of planned restructuring in the organisation leaked out last week.
The minister, who earlier warned he will not tolerate ”ethnic cleansing” in SA Rugby, is to meet SA Rugby president Brian van Rooyen and other senior rugby figures at his office in Pretoria on Wednesday night to discuss the row, which has threatened to derail the World Cup bid.
Though South Africa has to confirm its intention to bid by the end of this month, the government has still not endorsed the bid.
Komphela said rugby is a national asset, but its administrators are bringing the game into disrepute and it is losing all the credibility it has.
”We must be able to have smooth-sailing rugby,” he said. ”[At present] it’s riding on a serious rough wave.”
The committee does not want to micro-manage rugby or any other sport.
”But we must intervene when things are beginning to fall apart,” he said.
He also warned on the pace of transformation, saying that if SA Rugby is serious about change, the committee will ”carry you across the river”.
”But we are not going to carry a load that has no production,” he warned.
However, he said the committee will tell Stofile it is satisfied with the presentation and the benefits the World Cup will bring to the country, and that it supports the bid.
Appropriate time
Van Rooyen said that if the game has been brought into disrepute, ”those issues” will be dealt with at an appropriate time within SA Rugby.
On transformation, he said he will be the first to admit that since 1995 rugby has taken ”10 or 20 steps back”.
However, last year it made a bigger leap in transformation than in the past 10 years of unification, and did so without the transformation charter, which was to be completed by April.
Bid committee chairperson Mthobi Tyamzashe said there have been reports in the media that the government is not supporting the bid. He does not know where these come from.
”We believe we are going to get support from the government because we’ve got a case that makes sense,” he said.
This support should not only support the expenses of the bid, but also leave a ”footprint” through legacy funding.
”We want people to remember the World Cup long after it has happened,” he said.
DA sports spokesperson Donald Lee said in a statement that his party will ask Stofile parliamentary questions on his involvement in the SA Rugby spat.
”Since the minister is the vice-president’s brother, his taking sides in this matter can only create the public perception of a conflict of interests. He should recuse himself from the situation.” — Sapa