It has been a busy few weeks at the South African Rugby Union (Saru). At the end of March Saru’s AGM mandated Oregan Hoskins to remain as president for the next two years. Hoskins rebuffed a challenge for the presidency from his vice-president, Mike Stofile, and then lambasted his opponent for saying: ”There is no place for black people in South African rugby.”
Last week, in an attempt to stem the flow of misinformation and high-level leaks, Saru appointed the estimable Andy Colquhoun as its communications manager. This week interviews were held for the post of Springbok manager, vacated by Zola Yeye. And in June the organisation has been summoned to appear before yet another parliamentary briefing.
There is also the vexed question of broadcasting rights. The Sanzar deal, which encompasses both the Super 14 and Tri-Nations tournaments, is not up for reappraisal until 2010, but in February Saru entrenched SuperSport’s hegemony over domestic rugby until 2014. In the circumstances it would seem only natural for Hoskins to appear pressured and irascible, but nothing could be further from the truth.
”Mike’s remarks following the election made me more determined than ever to be a leader because it’s a much bigger issue than just rugby. For me it’s always been more than rugby. I’ve always fought for non-racialism and in many ways today we as a country stand on the precipice of falling short of what we really fought for.
”Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I am of mixed race, but I found it extremely annoying when Stofile said that there was no place for black people in South African rugby. He was insinuating that I wasn’t black, whereas I have always seen myself as both black and white, but never as either/or.
”For me it’s an insult and it’s an indication of how easily people play the race card. I saw it as a youngster under apartheid and I saw it surface again when he made his remarks. Stofile knew for the past two years that he was the only black African in the structure and he took full advantage of that fact, exploiting it for his own personal benefit. At no stage during that time did he raise the issue and say, ‘Look, guys, I’m very unhappy at being the only one; why aren’t we getting more guys in?’ I find that hypocritical.”
Hoskins has flown the flag for good corporate governance since accepting the poisoned chalice from his predecessor, Bryan van Rooyen.
On Butana Khompela, the chairperson of the parliamentary portfolio committee on sport, who has dogged Hoskins’s steps for 18 months, he remains philosophical.
”Last year I saw Mr Khompela on a regular basis, but I haven’t heard from him for a long time. During one of our meetings last year he drew my attention to a document which he described as being a government white paper. I wasn’t allowed to read it but he said that its findings were that the [sports] federations should run school sport and that there were millions of rands available.
”I said, ‘Please let’s implement it tomorrow because we’ve got the manpower — let’s do it.’ I haven’t heard from him since. I’m now told that there is a different plan and that the federations are not part of it.”
Hoskins believes Khompela is behind the latest summons for Saru to appear in Parliament. ”We got a letter last Thursday asking us to come to Parliament on June 10 to explain three things. First of all, the Southern Cape franchise issue, second transformation and third the SuperSport television deal.”
”While there can never be a truly satisfactory answer around transformation, the other … issues are fairly simple … Saru has a mandate to take top-level rugby to the Southern and Eastern Cape and the intention is for a franchise based there to compete in an expanded Super 14 from 2011 onwards. The SuperSport deal was a no-brainer in an atmosphere of global economic meltdown.”
Hoskins has an assurance from the satellite broadcaster that games will be made available to the South African Broadcasting Corporation and is due to sit down with the latter’s head of sport, Mvuso Mbebe, shortly. That in itself is a major breakthrough: three years ago Van Rooyen marched into Mbebe’s office and argued that the national broadcaster had a duty to show rugby. ”He was shown the door,” says Hoskins.