A fortnight ago Minister of Sport and Recreation Fikile Mbalula announced that athletics, cricket, football, netball and rugby are falling behind when it comes to transformation and development. Given netball’s hitherto amateur status and football’s farcical inclusion in this group, this blog will look at athletics, cricket and rugby only. Mbalula said he wants to see 60% black representation in teams and warned of harsh punishment if his wishes were met with resistance. Well Mbalula is quite right in a sense. Athletics, cricket and rugby are lagging behind but, dear Minister, how do you force a Springbok squad that consisted of 23% black players last time out (5 out of 22 vs France, November 2013) to suddenly field 60% players of colour? That is the definition of insanity. Mbalula is only right in saying national teams are not representative of the country they are representing.
In 1994 when Mbalula’s African National Congress swept to power under Nelson Mandela, they would have been quite right to insist on at least one black player in each of the former so-called white sports. Rugby obliged as Chester Williams took to the field in the Springboks’ first post-apartheid Test against England in Pretoria. Five years later there was still only one player of colour in the match day squad as Breyton Paulse scored a hat-trick of tries against Italy. Five years on and it looked like inroads were being made as Paulse was joined by Wayne Julies and Eddie Andrews in the starting XV and Hanyani Shimange, Quinton Davids and Bolla Conradie on the bench in a 31-17 win over Ireland. In President Jacob Zuma’s first Test as president coach Peter De Villiers also fielded six black players in a 26-21 win in Durban against the British Isles, but there were only five in the match day squad last time out in Paris. Yes, there has been gradual progress but it is simply too slow.
Cricket was slightly slow at first with an all-white team in 1994 but by the most recent match featuring the Proteas there were five players of colour in the starting XI in the ICC World Twenty20 semi-final against India. Athletics is a sport you would think would not have such problems. Well at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games 10 of the 22 track and field competitors were black. By 2008 the figure was exactly 50% with 13 out of 26 yet only eight of the 21 competitors in London in 2012 were black.
You might be of the persuasion that black athletes will weaken our teams. I would counter that by pointing out a number of white players that should never have worn green and gold. I shan’t disrespect them here but you know who they are. Moreover it is incredible that in the 1960s and 70s South Africa was dominating or beginning to dominate world rugby and cricket by only using 10% of its population. Imagine how unbeatable South Africa could have been by using 100% of its people!
The bottom line is that the Springboks, Proteas and ASA cannot select black players for the national team if they are not featuring for their provinces. By way of example out of the 110 players that did Super Rugby duty this past weekend, only 24 were black of which half were warming the bench. I wonder how Minister Mbalula expects Heyneke Meyer to field a 60% black Bok squad if the pool from which he picks his players are only made up of 22% players of colour.
The Bulls fielded three out of 22 when the overwhelmingly black Bulls-loving Limpopo province falls under their jurisdiction. The Sharks could only contribute four out of 22 while the Lions fared slightly better with five out of 22. According to the 2011 census there are 1.2 million people living in Soweto and I am sure the Lions could find at least one black rugby player of quality there. The Cheetahs fielded six out of 22, as did the Stormers (New Zealand’s Sailosi Tagicakibau doesn’t count).
Given what scouts are supposed to do, and not what they actually do, equal development opportunities should have existed since 1994. In this idealistic scenario, South Africa should have a generation of athletes aged 21-27 of all races ready to step up to international level. There are a million more just like Makhaya Ntini, Bryan Habana, Hashim Amla, Josia Thugwane, Hezekiel Sepeng, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and Caster Semenya just waiting to be unearthed.
In conclusion, I believe Minister Mbalula (and his predecessors) and his department have failed us in not giving the federations strict transformation targets and actually following up and that is why this debate is ongoing. This latest bit of razzmatazz amounts to nothing but cheap electioneering tactics.