Sports minister Fikile Mbalula has called on all South Africans to support the national rugby team‚ urging them to don their green and gold jerseys from now on and throughout the Rugby World Cup as a demonstration of a united country that “acknowledges its divided past but continues to strive for a non-racial‚ democratic and united South Africa”.
In a statement posted on Facebook‚ the minister said he had noted the recent poor performance of the Springboks‚ and concerns based on the poor demographic representation in the composition of the team. He had also noted the “legitimate public outcry based on the non-selection and denial of game time for deserving black players”.
“We are all agreed within the sporting movement that transformation is a strategic and moral imperative and therefore a non-negotiable. Furthermore‚ it has now become a necessity and an imperative than ever before due to the above highlighted fact that 84% of under 18 years old South Africans are black and (part of the historically most disadvantaged group in the country) and only 16% is either coloured‚ white or Indian.
“It is counter productive to only put focus on the 16% of the population and not to focus on the majority 84%. We are on a daily basis confronted by recalcitrant relics from the past and tendencies whose ulterior motives are to dilute or derail the transformation agenda. I can say with good measure that we are dealing with them and they will never defeat the determined march and drive to a non-racial‚ non-sexist and democratic sporting landscape‚” Mbalula said.
However‚ he added that it was his understanding that the South African Rugby Union (SARU) was on course towards the realisation of the targets that had been set for it.
“The evidence is there for all to see that the provincial franchises are increasingly and progressively fielding competent players African black and generic black players.
“It is also our understanding that the rugby fraternity prepares for all their games at club‚ provincial and at national levels‚ be it women or men sides that they are at all material times cognisant of their commitment and the consequences thereof‚” the minister stated.
He pointed out that the National Sport and Recreation Act contained no empowering provisions to enable him to interfere in the specific matter of team selection.
“I have however met with the SARU leadership give them an audience and to remind them of their responsibility to cascade the letter and spirit of our agreement vertically‚ horizontally across all facets of their code. The Selection of 11 generic black players of the 31 players as part of the IRB World Cup Team demonstrate our progression and SARU’s abiding commitments to achieving the set targets as stipulated in our tri-lateral Memorandum of Agreement.”
Mbalula also reminded all South Africans “that we are delivering sport under conditions that were not chosen by ourselves. We have accepted these objective and subjective conditions under which we had to operate to change the sporting landscape.
“We realized earlier on that there are no short-cuts‚ neither works fiction nor magical divine solutions to achieve transformation goals. We inherited a sporting system wherein there were agreements reached at the time of the unity talks ( driven by the National Sport Council) in sport that included the concessions of hosting of the successful IRB World Cup in 1995 and the much vaunted 50/50 representation in the Springbok Team post the World Cup period. With the passage of time‚ we in retrospect will agree that had those concessions been implemented in the past 20 years of our nascent democracy‚ history would be written and interpreted differently.
“It is for these reasons‚ amongst others that‚ we from the onset prepared ourselves to join hands with all South Africans whose purpose and objective is unity‚ social cohesion and nation building through sport‚ to find realistic and forward looking policies and strategies that would yield the desired transformation results in the interest of rugby and safeguarding the interests of all rugby players‚” Mbalulu stated.
He added: “We are on a daily basis confronted by recalcitrant relics from the past and tendencies whose ulterior motives are to dilute or derail the transformation agenda. I can say with good measure that we are dealing with them and they will never defeat the determined march and drive to a non-racial‚ non-sexist and democratic sporting landscape.”
Sport minister urges South Africans to support national rugby team
Sports minister Fikile Mbalula has called on all South Africans to support the national rugby team‚ urging them to don their green and gold jerseys from now on and throughout the Rugby World Cup as a demonstration of a united country that “acknowledges its divided past but continues to strive for a non-racial‚ democratic and united South Africa”.
In a statement posted on Facebook‚ the minister said he had noted the recent poor performance of the Springboks‚ and concerns based on the poor demographic representation in the composition of the team. He had also noted the “legitimate public outcry based on the non-selection and denial of game time for deserving black players”.
“We are all agreed within the sporting movement that transformation is a strategic and moral imperative and therefore a non-negotiable. Furthermore‚ it has now become a necessity and an imperative than ever before due to the above highlighted fact that 84% of under 18 years old South Africans are black and (part of the historically most disadvantaged group in the country) and only 16% is either coloured‚ white or Indian.
“It is counter productive to only put focus on the 16% of the population and not to focus on the majority 84%. We are on a daily basis confronted by recalcitrant relics from the past and tendencies whose ulterior motives are to dilute or derail the transformation agenda. I can say with good measure that we are dealing with them and they will never defeat the determined march and drive to a non-racial‚ non-sexist and democratic sporting landscape‚” Mbalula said.
However‚ he added that it was his understanding that the South African Rugby Union (SARU) was on course towards the realisation of the targets that had been set for it.
“The evidence is there for all to see that the provincial franchises are increasingly and progressively fielding competent players African black and generic black players.
“It is also our understanding that the rugby fraternity prepares for all their games at club‚ provincial and at national levels‚ be it women or men sides that they are at all material times cognisant of their commitment and the consequences thereof‚” the minister stated.
He pointed out that the National Sport and Recreation Act contained no empowering provisions to enable him to interfere in the specific matter of team selection.
“I have however met with the SARU leadership give them an audience and to remind them of their responsibility to cascade the letter and spirit of our agreement vertically‚ horizontally across all facets of their code. The Selection of 11 generic black players of the 31 players as part of the IRB World Cup Team demonstrate our progression and SARU’s abiding commitments to achieving the set targets as stipulated in our tri-lateral Memorandum of Agreement.”
Mbalula also reminded all South Africans “that we are delivering sport under conditions that were not chosen by ourselves. We have accepted these objective and subjective conditions under which we had to operate to change the sporting landscape.
“We realized earlier on that there are no short-cuts‚ neither works fiction nor magical divine solutions to achieve transformation goals. We inherited a sporting system wherein there were agreements reached at the time of the unity talks ( driven by the National Sport Council) in sport that included the concessions of hosting of the successful IRB World Cup in 1995 and the much vaunted 50/50 representation in the Springbok Team post the World Cup period. With the passage of time‚ we in retrospect will agree that had those concessions been implemented in the past 20 years of our nascent democracy‚ history would be written and interpreted differently.
“It is for these reasons‚ amongst others that‚ we from the onset prepared ourselves to join hands with all South Africans whose purpose and objective is unity‚ social cohesion and nation building through sport‚ to find realistic and forward looking policies and strategies that would yield the desired transformation results in the interest of rugby and safeguarding the interests of all rugby players‚” Mbalulu stated.
He added: “We are on a daily basis confronted by recalcitrant relics from the past and tendencies whose ulterior motives are to dilute or derail the transformation agenda. I can say with good measure that we are dealing with them and they will never defeat the determined march and drive to a non-racial‚ non-sexist and democratic sporting landscape.”
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