The management committee of South African rugby will meet next week to discuss matters raised at the meeting between senior rugby officials and Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkhesi Stofile in Pretoria on Wednesday. The meeting was also attended by representatives of the African National Congress Youth League.
Managing director of the South African Rugby Union Johan Prinsloo said after the meeting that the talks had been ”frank and honest.
It is believed that the main topic of discussion at the meeting with the minister was the awarding of the fifth South African Super 14 franchise to the central region.
The decision caused a outcry and many rugby supporters believe the franchise should have been awarded to the Eastern Cape, home to the vast majority of black rugby players.
Meanwhile, the opposition Democratic Alliance has called for the head of the Stofile.
The DA said that the constant interference by Stofile continues to hurt rugby and sport in South Africa.
”Minister Makhenkhesi Stofile’s fresh intervention in the dispute over the awarding of the Super 14 franchise leads to the question as to whether or not there is any need for sports administrators in South Africa,” it read.
”The Minister says today’s {Wednesday’s] meeting with rugby administrators will provide a platform for them to resolve their differences. We think it is something else. We think it is part of the Minister’s continuing bid to overturn the administrators’ failure to award a Super 14 franchise to the Eastern and Southern Cape.
”Irrespective of the merits of the case, we think the minister should not be getting involved. The minister’s reach seems so all-encompassing and his appetite for interference so great that the independence of all sports administrators seems purely academic,” it stated.
”The question, of course, is a false one. The real answer is that the minister should get out of the business of sports administration and indeed, get out of the Cabinet. There is no need for a minister of Sport.
”Our sports administration and thus our sport will continue to suffer as long as he stays there.” – Sapa