Trade union Solidarity is asking the Johannesburg labour court on Wednesday to set aside the sport and recreation ministry’s transformation charter.
It believes, if successful, it would mean an end to the politicising of sport and that the focus would be on developing and using the talents of all athletes and players.
This application is opposed by the minister of sport, the South African Rugby Union, Cricket South Africa, Athletics South Africa and Netball South Africa.
Solidarity said the application was part of the union and its sister organisation AfriForum’s joint campaign against applying quotas in sport.
The organisations said that in the run-up to the case, Solidarity and AfriForum, by means of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, managed to obtain the specific quota percentages for each of the various sports in May 2017.
This information revealed that the intention of sports authorities went way beyond team selection. The organisations said the quotas even involved the composition according to race of coaches, board and committee members, and support staff.
SA Schools Athletics to align selection criteria with Athletics SA
SA Schools Athletics has withdrawn its memos from last month outlining quotas to transform participation in primary and high schools.
SA Schools Athletics general secretary Peppi Olevano said in a letter on Tuesday they were withdrawing their memos from February 5 and 25.
“SA Schools Athletics will in future align its selection criteria with the federation (Athletics South Africa).”
This comes after AfriForum Youth contacted the body after it received a letter stating the following must be implemented to transform school athletics to “reflect the demographics” of SA:
Trade union Solidarity is asking the Johannesburg labour court on Wednesday to set aside the sport and recreation ministry’s transformation charter.
It believes, if successful, it would mean an end to the politicising of sport and that the focus would be on developing and using the talents of all athletes and players.
This application is opposed by the minister of sport, the South African Rugby Union, Cricket South Africa, Athletics South Africa and Netball South Africa.
Solidarity said the application was part of the union and its sister organisation AfriForum’s joint campaign against applying quotas in sport.
The organisations said that in the run-up to the case, Solidarity and AfriForum, by means of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, managed to obtain the specific quota percentages for each of the various sports in May 2017.
This information revealed that the intention of sports authorities went way beyond team selection. The organisations said the quotas even involved the composition according to race of coaches, board and committee members, and support staff.