Carlos Kambaekwa
There is a sense that people should move forward which is hugely encouraging, but alas, moving forward goes in tandem with recognising history and accepting the imbalances and realities of years gone by.
Yours truly has always and still strongly believes that South African rugby if it puts aside personal agendas and prejudice could become the best oval ball chasers at every level of the game globally.
Many of the game’s pundits might argue that the Springboks had an easy ride on their way to capture the recently-concluded World cup – their second in 12 years after claiming the scalps of defending champions England at the Stade de France in Paris last Saturday.
While the Doubting Thomasses remain unmoved in their belief that the Springboks would have faltered had they met the likes of New Zealand and Australia or France along the way – we should not lose sight of the fact that the Bokke accounted for Argentina, conquerors of France while the All Blacks lost to France in the quarterfinals.
The same England side that eventually succumbed to the Green & Gold outfit on the home straight eliminated Australia and France from the competition.
Mission accomplished! The biggest challenge still lies ahead and South African Rugby administrators seriously need to tackle the tortoise-like pace of transformation of this particular discipline at domestic level.
It is absolutely unbelievable and inexcusable that South African Rugby took more than a decade to add just one player of colour to their starting line-up after Chester Williams invaded sacred territory by featuring in the triumphant World Cup squad in 1995.
Coaches are still baulking at picking darkies in other positions than on the wings which takes us back to the old fashioned notion implemented by English Soccer clubs to confine black footballers to the wings because of their perceived reluctance to get stuck in when the going gets tough.
Despite all these negative perceptions, darkies have proven time and again that they are capable of handling the slippery oval ball with ease and can also add value as they bring a different dimension to the game.
The choice of Brian Habana as the most outstanding player in World Rugby is testimony to that, and rugby followers would surely like to see more darkies trotting onto the field with other numbers engraved on their jerseys than the customary 11 or 14s.
Jake White might be a hero today for delivering the elusive Webb Ellis Trophy to the Rugby mad Klipdrift guzzlers and boerewors munching khaki clad oaks.
But the brother’s decision to include only two darkies in the starting line-up, Brian Habana and JP Pietersen (both wings) could be the catalyst for Parliament’s Portfolio Committee chair Butana Komphela’s call to speed up the process of transformation.
A decent chunk of politicians are very vocal and eager to witness some Progress in transformation and their frustration has ultimately led to the suggestion and subsequent introduction of quotas.
However, the Parliamentarians’ good intentions are totally misdirected and instead of focusing on the domestic structures, they tend to put more emphasis on the national level – in the process cannibalising the black players’ fight for equality, as it only abets the absurd notion that darkies are Uncool for Test Rugby.
Eight players of colour were selected for the South African World Cup squad and only 2 were deemed fit to make a significant contribution – certainly not a true reflection of the country’s demographics.
Black players should, under no circumstances become political pawns to deflect the pressure of the fuming politicians. This sort of window-dressing neither assists the cause of transformation nor encourages progress.
Given the irritatingly slow rate of transformation and resistance to change, authorities will have to bite the bullet and persist with the unpopular quota system, but the consequence is that darkies are bound to suffer the indignity of being labelled as quota players – which clearly implies their presence in the squad is not on merit, so to speak.
Transformation is about creating opportunities for the previously disadvantaged and should in no way be confused with development because the latter is the nurturing of raw talent and talent identification should not be colour coded, period!