SA rugby interests 'secondary'

2007-08-06 11:40

Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance has accused SA Rugby Union (Saru) deputy president Mike Stofile of placing the interests of South African rugby secondary to "pleasing his ANC bosses".

"New calls for increased racial quotas are once again tainting the Springbok squad," DA spokesperson Donald Lee said on Monday.

"Mike Stofile, as usual punting his own opinions as law, claims that seven black team members of the Springboks are not enough."

This contradicted Saru president Oregan Hoskins' statements that the Springbok team should have up to seven players of colour.

Political games were going on behind the facade of team "transformation", Lee said in a statement.

Hurting the national team

The transformation agenda had once more taken an ugly turn, not only with Stofile's statements, but also with revisiting the ban on individuals who played for overseas clubs playing in the Springbok squad.

This regulation was dropped in the past when it became clear that it was actually hurting the national team to exclude skilled and experienced players.

Now, for the same destructive political reasons, the regulation was back and it would inevitably lead to the same consequences.

The regulation went against international norms in all the different sports.

"No one in their right mind would suggest the same for soccer, swimming, tennis and a host of other sports in South Africa, or other countries.

"But then Saru has a history of making regulations that were concocted without sense or reason," he said.

The renewed calls for an enforced quota system were also a bit confusing, with Stofile claiming one thing and Hoskins calling for something else.

There was no unity within SARU, and this had a damaging effect on the administration of the national team.

"What is clear, though, is that Stofile has absolutely no interest in what is best for rugby in South Africa.

"All he is interested in is pleasing his ANC bosses, with the minister of sport and recreation [Makhenkesi Stofile], Stofile's brother, calling the shots along with the racially obsessed Butana Khompela [National Assembly sport committee chairman].

"Mike Stofile is just mindlessly repeating the line his political bosses have given him."

There was clearly a struggle going on in Saru, which showed itself in squabbles such as the current bickering between Hoskins and Stofile who would always follow the political directives, regardless of the impact that it had on the national rugby team.

The DA was forced to remind Saru that teams should be chosen on the basis of merit and not political criteria.

If government and Saru were interested in transformation, they would be more concerned with developing the pool of emerging talent of all races at school level, rather than fiddling with the national team, Lee said.

- SAPA