Rugby greats honour Fredericks
RUGBY legends came together to honour Cape and Saru rugby great Salie Fredericks at a memorial service at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology yesterday.
Hailing from District 6, Fredericks, a former lock, who starred in non-racial rugby in the 1960s and 1970s, was regarded as one of the finest rugby players the country ever produced.
His memorial by the Saru (Sacos) legends in honour of their former captain and teammate marked the new beginning for the organisation.
Fredericks’s son Luqmaan Fredericks said he didn’t know until his death the impact his father had made on people.
“This has been a humbling experience for our family to see all these rugby greats and how they admired and respected him,” said Luqmaan.
He said his father had lost his close friends and Bo-Kaap rugby greats Achmat Isaacs and Salie Dollie, and had often joked that “ons gaan nou almal” (now we are all going).
Fredericks’s daughter Ielhaam Samsodien said her father was one of a kind and a gentle giant of a man.
Saru (Sacos) Rugby Legends chairperson Angelo Arendse said the memorial was a fitting gesture to not only commemorate one of their own.
“Boeta Salie, in my view, is the greatest rugby player ever to grace our rugby fields and it is sad that our national rugby administrators have overlooked him and so many others.
“Saru (Sacos) are also mobilising former non-racial rugby legends throughout the country, as together we can make greater strides in preserving our history and effecting change in our country’s rugby,” said Arendse.
Western Province Rugby’s first woman executive member of the board, Shamila Sulayman, said it was important to acknowledge and remember the legends of the past.
She said events like Fredericks’s memorial was one way the rugby union could assist by giving the legends a platform to tell their stories.