The lion that clucked

THEY obviously no longer make young lions roar like they used to. The minister of sport and former ANC Youth League president, Fikile Mbalula, would like us to believe that he is the bravest young lion since the days of Peter “Kill the Boer” Mokaba.

But the not-so-young-anymore Mbalula proved himself to be more of a chicken than a lion when he pulled out, at the last minute, from a debate on sports transformation on Al Jazeera.

According to reports, the firebrand minister who wants to see all our national teams boasting 60% black players, suddenly got cold feet when he realised that he was to debate the issue with former cricket star Clive Rice and self-styled Boerevolk leader Kallie Kriel.

Instead of continuing with the debate as scheduled, Mbalula stormed out — leaving political analyst Somadoda Fikeni to fight his corner alone. When the going gets tough, Mbalula chickens out.