Rugby’s corporate sponsors and its hallowed symbol the Springbok came under fire from delegates on the first day of a two-day National Sports Indaba held in Durban on Thursday.
Parliamentary sports portfolio committee chairperson Butana Komphela told delegates: ”The Springbok divides us. We have a responsibility to unite our country on one national emblem.”
He added: ”Minister, I want you to observe the arrogance of white people on the Springbok emblem.”
Komphela said that there could be ”no negotiation” on the emblem.
When the floor was opened to the delegates, many speakers called for a resolution removing the Springbok emblem to be passed as soon as possible.
However, Sports and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile said: ”My view is that emblems are not matters of life and death.”
He added, however, that there should be one national emblem that all sporting codes would endorse.
Komphela added that the Sharks rugby franchise’s failure to wear ”Say no to racism” on their jerseys was nothing but ”rampant racism” on the part of manufacturer Mr Price.
”Dealing with the legacy of apartheid cannot be dealt with by market forces,” he said.
South African Rugby Union chief executive Johan Prinsloo said he could not participate in the debate on the emblem as he had not been authorised to do so and the Springbok emblem had not originally been on the agenda of the indaba.
According to the Sports Ministry, the main purpose of the indaba is to develop an integrated national strategy in order to accelerate the implementation of the national sports development agenda.
The indaba will focus on the number of critical topics such as politics, sport, transformation and excellence, as well as access to resources.
Earlier in the day, South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) president Moss Mashishi said the country’s poor Beijing Olympic results need to be examined without ”stones being thrown at each other”.
He said the ”painful lessons of this experience need to be examined soberly rather than be used an opportunity to throw stones at each other”.
South Africa’s able-bodied athletes only managed to win one silver medal — their worst result since being readmitted to the international sporting fold.
In contrast, the country’s Paralympians a month later enjoyed their best Paralympics to date, raking in 30 medals, including 21 golds, to finish sixth on the medals table.
Mashishi said that ”now that we have given the big powers such as the Russians a fright we should put more resources into the team”.
Referring to the sports funding from the National Lottery, Mashishi questioned why the control of those funds is not within the sporting fraternity.
An area that needs to be cleared up is the relationship between federations and school sport. ”It’s an area that is grey and hazy,” he said. — Sapa