The issue of a uniform South African sports symbol will be discussed at the upcoming African National Congress (ANC) policy conference, party spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said on Friday.
”We want to harmonise the national symbols of the country. One logo for all sports,” he said.
Ngonyama said the public would also be given a say in the possible name change as the symbol was not the sole preserve of the ANC.
”There will be no decision, we will discuss it and then we’ll throw it back to the public and the branches of the ANC to finalise the matter.
”We are discussing the national symbols, all of them, including the Springbok and the Protea,” he said.
Cedric Frolick, chief whip of the Parliamentary sports portfolio committee, told the Volksblad newspaper on Thursday that a unified sports emblem would build the nation.
Frolick said that presently some of the teams did not look like South Africans on the sports fields.
He said the soccer team wore different team clothes each time they played.
”It has twice been resolved — the last time in 1998 — that the Proteas should be the only sport emblem. The discussion on putting this into effect is now beginning in all seriousness.”
The four-day policy conference will start in Johannesburg on Wednesday. — Sapa