World Cup blurs transformation line

Chief Sports Writer Kevin McCallum says we cannot tolerate another four years of lip service to transformation in SA rugby.

Some years ago, I was passed a quote I believe to have been from Rian Oberholzer, then the managing director of Sarfu. He had told a meeting of officials that if rugby development had been a business, then it would have been declared bankrupt.

There had been no return on the investment of millions of rands into taking the sport to the people who made up the majority of the country with the hope of creating black Springboks. Rugby development had a scattergun approach. Agents were sent to scour the furthest corners of the kingdoms for black players.

Development seemed to operate out of a sense of desperation and appeasement instead of a genuine need to transform. They needed black superstars. They must be out there somewhere, they hoped and prayed.

Oberholzer’s predecessor at Sarfu, Edward Griffiths, had spoken about finding a South African version of Jonah Lomu. They did, but his name was Dean Hall and he was white. Perhaps their error was in looking for a superman to hold up to black South Africa as proof they were working hard to right the evils of the past. Perhaps they should have walked quietly with a big stick to convince those white coaches and administrators who slowed down the ball of transformation, for that is where the stumbling block lies.

The messages on the transformation of South African rugby have been confusing. In March 2002, Thabo Mbeki said, “For two to three years, let’s not mind losing international competitions because we are bringing our people into those teams.” In 2007, at a function to bid the Boks farewell at the Presidential Guest House in Pretoria, he told Jake White’s team: “While you are away forget all of these controversies that we always raise as politicians, don’t worry about those ones, just play the rugby.” This after Butana Komphela had threatened to take away their passports if the team did not include more black players. Mbeki also said that day: “If they (the French) want to invite you out, and want to give you wine and feed you frog legs, say no thank you, let’s stick to pap and vleis, so that we make sure they don’t do funny things.” Damn foreigners.

In 2000, Ngconde Balfour, then sports minister, thundered in parliament: “I am very clear about one thing: transformation in sport – and this includes rugby – is non-negotiable. I make no apologies for questioning the lack of black players in the provincial teams and national squad.” Balfour negotiated his way to a non-negotiable stay in the Springboks’ five-star hotel in Freemantle, Perth, during the 2003 World Cup, seemingly not fussed by the paucity of black players in the team and the Geo Cronje/Quinton Davids furore.

In 2005, sports minister Makhenkesi Stofile said: “(Sport administrators should) sacrifice winning in the name of transformation.”

He at least, well, mostly anyway, stuck to his guns when congratulating the Boks for the 2007 World Cup win, saying: “We are proud of the Springboks for representing us with distinction and commitment. This victory should herald a new era – an era in which we all embrace change and tackle the challenges still being faced by our rugby and sport in general. Our victory during the 1995 World Cup offered us a window to see what South Africa can be. We did not build on that. May we not commit the same error after this second chance.”

And, yet, they did. It was more of the same. When Peter de Villiers was named as the Bok coach, Oregan Hoskins, the Saru president, introduced him as the first black Bok coach. “The fact that I’m the first black coach must end now,” said De Villiers.

In 2010, Gwede Mantashe, said: “I’m a big supporter of Peter de Villiers by the way, as Springbok coach.” In 2014, he told Reuters, “De Villiers was too timid and Saru too slow in pushing transformation … ‘There is progress in terms of the coloured composition. But it is not enough. There is not a shortage of talent. There is not a shortage of skill’.”

De Villiers laid into Heyneke Meyer last week, only for it to be shown that his record in picking black players was just marginally better and that he had asked Meyer to coach his forwards in the 2011 World Cup.

And last week Fikile Mbalula played it safe in the wake of Cosatu’s claims about being approached by unhappy players, claims that have more than a whiff of fiction about them, that: “Full transformation in rugby is not going to emerge overnight because we are going to the World Cup. I have (previously) addressed the transformation issues and I have gone a long way in doing so. We need a winning team that is black and white going to the World Cup.”

The World Cup blurs the lines for politicians. It should sharpen the lines for Saru. We cannot tolerate another four years of lip service to transformation before the 2019 tournament rolls around and the contradictions begin again. - The Star