Enough talented black players to have been selected on merit!
Failing to give effect to real transformation
ACCORDING to Oregan Hoskins, the president of the SA Rugby Union (Saru): “No one needs to remind us about the importance of transformation – we got there long ago.” Really! I must have been Iiving on another planet!
Mr Hoskins needs to understand that no amount of “indabas” will transform rugby if Saru rubbishes the very resolutions of their own indabas by appointing a national coach who has no commitment or appetite for transformation. How else does Saru explain the selection of a national team so unrepresentative of our nation despite there being enough black players worthy of selection on merit?
Saru must be exposed for failing to give effect to real transformation. Many South Africans are struggling to accept the Springbok World Cup rugby squad. They are asking where Lionel Mapoe, Seabelo Senatla, Cornel Hendricks, Scarra Ntubeni, Toboho Mohoje and Elton Jantjies are.
Hoskins is in total denial about the divisive, questionable and recalcitrant selections by Saru and its coach. I doubt very much that there would be such an outcry against a national coach and Saru so close to the Rugby World Cup were it not for the blatant disregard and contempt shown by the coach.
Transformation in rugby will not just happen after this World Cup as Hoskins would have us believe. Transformation happens only through struggle and taking a firm stand regarding fundamental challenges facing our nation when it is most difficult to do so.
This is to ensure that the voiceless and most vulnerable in this complex world of rugby are given hope for a better future and real opportunities.
Our iconic Madiba said: “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair.”
As a country, our moment of truth in sport came when Madiba wore the Springbok jersey during the 1995 World Cup in South Africa – the supreme symbol of Afrikaner identity and white supremacy.
As a young adult at the time, who fought in the trenches against white supremacy and apartheid. I sat in front of my TV thinking this was the birth of something significant, enormous, where talented youth from previously disadvantaged communities would have an equal opportunity to represent their country. At the time I knew many talented kids who could surely have represented the country if given equal opportunity.
But 21 years since our democracy, the progress we anticipated since winning the Rugby World Cup on that momentous day has not materialised as sufficiently as Saru pretends it has.
Instead, South Africa is going to the 2015 World Cup with only eight black players out of a squad of 31 among whom there are players who have done no playing, at this level, for almost a year.
There are enough talented black players in rugby who could have been selected on merit to represent our country at this year’s Rugby World Cup. The many wrongs in rugby can be corrected by taking a stand so that many of our children can have an equal opportunity to realise their dream of representing their country.
Mohamed writes in his own capacity from Lotus River