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FF+ slams ANC MPs over rugby
20/02/2008 18:02 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Political mudslinging over rugby continued on Wednesday with the FF Plus condemning the reaction of ANC MPs to former Springbok captains calling for an end to political interference in the sport.
A move by AfriForm and a group of former Springbok rugby captains handing over a petition to the SA Rugby president, Oregan Hoskins, calling for an end to political interference in rugby, elicited a scathing attack by Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile last week.
The FF Plus on Wednesday condemned accusations levelled at it by ANC MP's in parliament's portfolio committee on sport on Tuesday indicating that the party had used AfriForm and the former Springbok captains to obtain their own objectives.
"It is a pity that the ANC members of the parliamentary portfolio committee on Sport, are now starting to rely on conspiracy theories to explain the reaction of former Springbok rugby captains on the government's interference in rugby.
"They should rather judge the merits of the Springbok captain's criticism of the government's interference," the FF Plus said in a statement.
The FF Plus described the ANC's condemnation of the involvement of the captains as "strongly reminiscent of the 'total onslaught' rhetoric of the 1980's".
The only difference, said the party, was that the shoe was now on the other foot.
"The ANC government will just have to learn from the mistakes of the previous regime that calling on 'total onslaught conspiracy theories' will in the long run not discount the merits of the new struggle", said FF Plus leader Piet Mulder.
In a statement last week, Stofile slammed the participation of the former captains in the public campaign as the "re-emergence of the erstwhile ambassadors of apartheid" in South African rugby.
"We regret this apparent rattling of the skeletons in the apartheid cupboard. Their gaunt eyes of injustice seem jaundiced in their interpretation of issues and in their selection of battlefields."
He said they would not be allowed to re-impose their political will on South African rugby in their attempt to protect the benefits of apartheid bequeathed to their children.
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