South Africa’s rugby bosses were hauled over the coals by lawmakers on Tuesday over the continued dearth of black players in the Springbok team 13 years after the end of the apartheid era.
Members of the portfolio committee on sport lined up to accuse rugby administrators of not doing enough to develop rugby at school and club level and of paying lip-service to demands for racial transformation.
The head of the rugby association agreed that there were problems and promised that more would be done to redress the balance.
”Sport cannot be exonerated from the broad picture of government programmes,” said committee chairperson Butana Komphela, who is a member of the governing African National Congress (ANC).
”Sport cannot be excluded from imperatives of empowerment and transformation.”
South Africa is seen as one of the favourites for this year’s World Cup in France, having recently thrashed current holders England, and produced both finalists in the Super 14 final last month.
However, the countdown for the tournament in France is being overshadowed by increasing criticism over the make-up of the Springboks, who rarely include more than four players of colour in their starting 15.
Komphela recently suggested the players should have their passports impounded if the team did not become more representative of the country’s ethnic mix, although the idea was quickly shot down by the government.
Tsietsi Louw, another ANC member of the committee, said that black players aspiring to play for the national side were running into obstacles that had nothing to do with their ability.
”We are dealing with a political problem here,” he said.
”We have all these players moving up [through the ranks] but when they get there, there is a bottleneck. There is a deliberate political agenda to keep these black players where they are. Only three or four will [succeed].”
Union representatives were mistaken if they believed they were ”doing us a favour” by reporting they had three black players on board, said Louw.
”How is it possible that after 13 years we have only three players?”
South African Rugby Union president Oregon Hoskins agreed there were problems.
”I am not happy with the pace of transformation as the leader of South African rugby,” he told the committee.
”We will endeavour to do the best we can in what are sometimes difficult and trying circumstances.” — AFP
