EC and Bay politicians must fight for what’s ours
THE principle of “no political interference in sport” was a phrase trumpeted with great frequency by the National Party over the decades that it was in power.
As with many of its policies, it was not without considerable irony, given that National Party policy dictated that sports teams should be neatly colour coded and that other nations were expected to follow suit, as we witnessed when Basil D’Oliviera was included in the England cricket team and the tour was immediately cancelled.
The notion of “no political interference in sport” post-1994 has generally been the rallying cry of those who believe that some kind of sporting “market force” will bring about transformation and that government has no right to interfere to hasten the process by whatever means.
That argument supports the belief by many within the ANC that the readmission of South Africa into the international arena was driven by the desire for national reconciliation, which was wrong. The transformation of sport should have been the precursor to readmission into the international fold.
Given that politicians within the ruling party are quite willing to express their opinion on issues around transformation and quotas it is strange that those from the Eastern Cape, and specifically Nelson Mandela Bay, have been so silent with regard to the participation by the Southern Kings in Super Rugby or, failing that, the Eastern Province Kings in the Premier Division of the Currie Cup.
Confounding the legion of doomsayers, the Southern Kings were neither embarrassed nor an embarrassment in their first season of Super 15 Rugby, faring better than both the Western Force and Melbourne Rebels during their first year of participation in the competition.
The hunger for top-class rugby in the Eastern Cape was also evident from the fact that the team enjoyed the third-highest attendance at home matches of any Super Rugby team.
At the end of the season, however, having lost the playoffs against the Lions by a narrow margin, the Kings were duly relegated from the Super 15 competition and one suspects the South African Rugby Union (Saru), which had done little to assist the team in its first season, was indeed satisfied with the outcome. That the team was informed so late that it would be participating in the Super 15 competition is hard evidence of this.
One suspects equally that Saru is satisfied with the outcome as far as the Currie Cup is concerned as well. It is not unkind to conclude – perhaps cynically – that what is required of the Eastern Cape is that it should produce as many good black players as possible who can then be poached by other teams.
Quite understandably the players will want to play at the highest level and they cannot be blamed for that.
Over the past months, EP Rugby Union president Cheeky Watson and his team have effectively been left to negotiate on their own at a time when public representatives at all three levels of government should have been continuing to lobby furiously to ensure there was no return to Cinderella status.
But there was silence, as there was from the opposition.
(They should in fact have started
We have come on since 2012 but we can’t use growth as an excuse all the time. If you want to become the best in the world you have to get there.
Springbok wing Bryan Habana on losing against the All Blacks on Saturday
fighting long before so that the Kings were at least given a fair chance in Super 15 rugby and not just a single year.)
One would have thought that councillors in Nelson Mandela Bay and other public representatives from the area in particular would have made every effort to ensure at least some top flight rugby was secured for the Kings, if only because without Super 15 or Currie Cup rugby, the financial burden of maintaining the 2010 stadium is going to be even greater.
(Given the costs involved it appears unlikely that a PSL team will be secured, particularly as R21-million of the amount required has to come from province that defaulted on its obligations in terms of paying for the stadium.)
In the early post-1994 period, when the ANC was still uncomfortable with the compromise that led to the creation of the provinces, it was considered unacceptable to lobby or agitate for one’s province.
That time is long past and the people of Nelson Mandela Bay and their public representatives as well as those of the province need to recognise that unless they lobby and agitate, the largesse will go to other provinces.
It needs to be remembered that it was tough lobbying specifically by Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism MEC Mcebisi Jonas that resulted in the billions of rand being ploughed into the ports of Port Elizabeth, Ngqura and East London.
At one stage, it should be remembered, the manganese facility in the Port Elizabeth Harbour was to be closed and the ore exported through Saldanha. That would have meant the loss of two ferro-manganese smelters at Coega and with that countless jobs.
At the same juncture, consideration was being given to closing the Port of East London.
The manganese did not go to Saldanha and the Port of East London is to be expanded because of the determination to ensure that the Eastern Cape secured its fair share of Transnet’s capital expenditure.
For the future of rugby in this province the two messages from this are quite simple.
Firstly, sport is part of the political terrain and the politicians must not be reticent in recognising this.
Secondly, we will achieve absolutely nothing except the exodus of our young sportsmen and women unless we are prepared to fight for what should rightfully be ours.