Stofile stuck in past
26 Jul 2007
Keo, in his Independent Newspaper column, asks why Minister of Sport Makhenkesi Stofile is willing to accept the Proteas as representative of a new South Africa, but not the Springboks?
Stofile remains adamant the Springbok World Cup squad does not represent South Africa as a new country.
He said it was proof South African rugby was stuck in the past.
Springbok coach Jake White included one ethnic black African and five coloured players in his World Cup squad of 30 – a number government officials said was not enough.
Rewind a few months to the cricket World Cup. The Proteas receive the following message: “Go out there and represent South Africa with dignity. We believe in you and we will be behind you as you stand toe-to-toe with Australia next week.” Yes, the same Stofile sent this message to a cricket side that did not contain one ethnic black player in the starting XI.
Staying with cricket, government officials and cricket administrators lauded the squad composition ahead of the World Cup. Seven players of colour in 15 was viewed as a dramatic breakthrough for transformation, but only one of those seven players was black African – Makhaya Ntini.
The window-dressing exercise at the cricket World Cup was completed when Roger Telemachus did not play a game, Loots Bosman played in one and the first choice slow bowler Robin Peterson bowled less overs than part-time spinner and captain Graeme Smith.
Prior to the tournament Smith told the media he believed in every player’s ability, but he obviously didn’t, otherwise Peterson would have bowled more. Telemachus did not bowl a ball in the West Indies, Peterson bowled just 72 and Bosman, picked as a batsman, never batted. Cricket’s transformation of the squad was a lie, which the government was willing to embrace.
Transformation in South African rugby since unification in 1991 has been a farce. We all know that, but it does not start with the selection of the national squad. A coach can only choose from the players available and in this light the squad is very representative of South African rugby’s player demographics.
This past weekend only seven ethnic black Africans started in eight premier division Currie Cup sides. Only five of these players are eligible to play for the Boks. When it comes to black African selection White is effectively picking from a pool of less than 10 and not 40 million who make up South Africa’s population.
The government should be condemning South African rugby’s failure to transform and should be demanding change at a domestic level. Instead all the criticism is irrationally levelled at the national squad. Cricket, no better than rugby when it comes to transformation, never feels the wrath of the Sports Minister or his colleagues. Why?
Is it because cricket was traditionally seen as an English sport and rugby as that of the Afrikaner? Does cricket get away with it because of the so-called white liberal association and rugby gets caned because of so-called Afrikaans conservatives?
If South African sport is to be transformed and representative of a new country then the sports ministry’s attitude has to be consistent to all sports, including cricket and soccer.
If Stofile believed so much in a cricket team devoid of black African representation, why can he not believe in a rugby team accused of a similar failing?
The answer could be that he, like rugby, is stuck in the past.
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240 Comments
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26 Jul 2007, 10:17 am
Integration isn’t even remotely the “issue”.
Selecting teams — and judging the worth of teams — on race-based political criteria (“transformation quotas”/ faux “equality”) is the issue.
It’s wrong.
Merit is the way to go.
26 Jul 2007, 10:18 am
Transformation is a proxy fight directed at gatekeepers who should be opening up opportunities. This was never a problem in football – professional clubs like Highlands Park, Hellenic, Rangers, Wits, created opportunities for black players even when it was against the law, because they needed them. Hence, football isn’t part of the racial transformation debate. But rugby administrators have the stigma and label of not opening the doors energetically enough, hence rugby being targeted.
26 Jul 2007, 10:19 am
#42… Diddy!
If a leader is useless, incompetent and fit the “ugly†description, don’t expect me to shut up! What did Stofile do for Rugby? What is his contribution? How can it be measured?
26 Jul 2007, 10:20 am
#52 Henry
Unfortuanately you sre spot on!
26 Jul 2007, 10:20 am
Stigmas are often unfair and unearned. One does not remove an unjustified stigma by pandering to it.
26 Jul 2007, 10:21 am
Profound wisdom from the tackler yet again. “that’s how it is so get over it!” Amazing. Don’t try to change it,no. just accept it. So what about crime in this country tackler? shouldn’t we try to change that either, seeing as that’s how it is? forgive us for hoping that anything should change when it’s not ideal
26 Jul 2007, 10:27 am
#48
4man
“effluxion”
Well done on using a 50 buck word that even Tackler doesn’t understand!
26 Jul 2007, 10:27 am
You CAN — and SHOULD — deal with crime and get it under control. It’s do-able.
You CANNOT and SHOULDN’T stray one inch off the straight and narrow path of merit selection. Any other sort of race-selection/ forced “equality” is never going to work. It’s not do-able.
Try as hard as you like for as long as you like, but in the end it won’t work. It’s against human nature.
Rugby players are NOT all “equal”. Nor is society at large, no matter how hard we try to pretend otherwise.
26 Jul 2007, 10:27 am
So merit is the way to go, is it tackler? but i thought the type of school a schoolboy goes to influences selection, didn’t you say. in that event, a better player from westerford is less likely to be selected than one from bishops. and your solution to that is “get over it. life is unfair.” in that event, not even merit is the way to go
26 Jul 2007, 10:28 am
So merit is the way to go, is it tackler? but i thought the type of school a schoolboy goes to influences selection, didn’t you say. in that event, a better player from westerford is less likely to be selected than a poor one from bishops. and your solution to that is “get over it. life is unfair.” in that event, not even merit is the way to go
26 Jul 2007, 10:33 am
Nobody in the selectorial inner-circle even bothers to WATCH a Westerford 1st team play. And, let’s be fair, there’s very little reason to do so.
If a firecracker player ever DID emerge from Westerford, the boys’ parents would do well to enrol him at Bishops to get noticed. And that’s what they’ll do. If they don’t… too bad. That’s life.
26 Jul 2007, 10:33 am
Tackler
If you bothered to read what I posted before you would have know that is what I was talking about.
And if you actually knew what was going on in our rugby you would know that is the biggest problem we have. Remove the stigmas that have incorrectly being put on certain people through race and politics.
26 Jul 2007, 10:35 am
#58… Ditto!
26 Jul 2007, 10:36 am
I have read what you said #62. I’m just not impressed with it. That’s all.
26 Jul 2007, 10:38 am
64
Sorry I’ll try harder next time.
26 Jul 2007, 10:38 am
Get with the program Stofile. I am so sick and tired of this transformation/quota ****. For the first time in many years most people are happy with the squads composition, but the politicians have nothing better to do.
Rather concentrate on other issues, stop playing the race card all the time.
I see more black people with Springbok jerseys on than Bafana Bafana tops, why is this ?
The Springbok will NOT dissapear from our rugby jerseys, if it does it will be a sad day for SA Sport, and a MAJOR step back for this country.
MAN, THIS **** MAKES ME CROSS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
26 Jul 2007, 10:41 am
66
Cos the bok jersey is way cooler!
26 Jul 2007, 10:43 am
So merit isn’t even the issue then, tackler. teams never have been selected on merit, ever. maybe we should accept that too and never use it as an alternative to quotas
26 Jul 2007, 10:46 am
Azza, no knowledge is Fu^%$king dangerous knowledge!!!
The Springbok emblem has nothing to with apartheid or transformation… Why does Stofile think so… He should stop worrying about **** and think about sport as a whole!!!
All the black and white people calls the Springboks the BOKKE!!!!!
26 Jul 2007, 10:49 am
I think that Aza ask’s a valid questions about what happens to junior black players b-coz if u look at all our junior squads, u will find that they are more than representative in terms of colour and talent. The same could be said about schools rugby & even Craven week. However I do think that Keo has a valid point about saying that the focus for transformation should be @ da lower ranks i.e. Provincial and the national team will follow naturally b-coz u find that u will hve black players selecting themselves purely on merit.
If I think about our current squad, not even a single black with the exception of Waylon Murray comes to mind in terms of deserving to make the world cup squad. In fact there are some black players whom one could argue their inclusion i.e. Willemse & da Ndungane twin (picked the wrong twin). Even as a black rugby fan, I do feel that Stofile and the portfolio committee are a bunch of losers who are ***cking up our sports especially rugby.
They need to be consistent in their approach when it comes to all sporting codes. Look at da mess our soccer is in and yet they are doing nothing about. I really liked the article about what the president of Saru said about transformation, this sounded like a sensible approach.
We do still need to understand what happens to players of colour when they have to break into senior provincial ranks.
26 Jul 2007, 11:01 am
Teams all over the world ARE selected on merit.
From the talent on display.
The inequality woven all through life comes about in the fact that what is on display didn’t get there along the same primrose path. And that, out there somewhere, there may well be a greater talent than what is on display to the merit selectors. Or maybe there isn’t. We cannot know.
As a fine poet once wrote: “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen/And waste its sweetness on the desert air”
That’s life.
26 Jul 2007, 11:05 am
every time keo talks ****, you bandits follow.
26 Jul 2007, 11:07 am
Stofile is inderdaad van die Oos-Kaap af. Ek self kan die PH nie verdra nie. Sy agenda is polities en dit hoort nie in sport nie.
Ek kan nou nog nie glo dat Jake White hierdie 30 spelers kon kies nie. Dis ‘n pluimpie vir SA Rugby.
26 Jul 2007, 11:15 am
I still think transformation is a bit of joke. They should have had a mandela 15 team by now.
I blame that on SARU. Instead of them picking on the past maybe create something new. Theer are enough players to create an all black south african team.
They can start playing games against the new zealand maoris and maybe lesser teams like Japan, USA etc.
They could have had this up and running ages ago, Paulse could have been the first captain.
But SARU would rather lay into the past etc etc
26 Jul 2007, 11:27 am
72# ethiger
Howzit?
You there Saturday? I have a sponsorship on the ‘Most Promising Player’.
Go check that it is a fair decision please, I can’t be there!
26 Jul 2007, 11:32 am
I’m no fan of Stofile BUT,
I guess the difference is that the cricket franchises and the game on the whole is better represented by key players of colour. Transformation has been way better than rugby.
In general, i think there are more non-white rugby players than cricket players and bigger teams and squads yet they are behind.
It’s a game of stats and can manipulated in many ways. End of the day, transformation has been a farce no matter who is writing the article.
26 Jul 2007, 11:32 am
And maybe out there there’s a littany of talented players who’s paths are littered with thorns and entangling weed. we should espouse to at least remove these from their paths. at least that’s my belief. but if it is the darwinian approach that gets you excited, i’ll get over it! cheers
26 Jul 2007, 11:34 am
It is a pity that this article is not resulting in a discussion of Rugby as a professional sport, i.e. as a business with a profit motive. Most of the posts here above respond to Keo’s thoughtful article by concentrating upon the purely political aspects – but in truth the emphasis should be upon how Rugby in SA is to survive (and thrive?) from a financial perspective.
This will, in all likelihood, be the very last appearance of the Springbok symbol at a World Cup and moreover, this present team will, in all probability also be the last really competitive team ever selected.
And, less the above statement be misconstrued, that is NOT to suggest that players “of colour†are somehow constitutionally incapable of being selected on merit! The Tobias’ and Williams’ and the Paulse’s and a host of others have won the Green and Gold on merit and served with distinction!
But as I wrote here some weeks ago, the point is precisely what Keo is depicting, the Springbok team as it is at present, is already pretty much representative of the status quo in rugby.
The demographic distrubution of Rugby players, suppporters and interest in the sport, and therefore also of financial inputs, is simply not the same as that in the general populace.
That is a very real problem that needs to be addressed at the levels which produce the players and supporters of the future.
A “quick-fix at the top†through enforcing uncompetitive “quota†teams will simply serve to destroy the capital base of Rugby as a business and therefore as a professional game.
If Bok or Protea teams are not selected on merit and become increasingly uncompetitive, then interest and eventually also attendance (including television audiences) will start dropping abroad.
Rugby is a business, whether one wants to believe that or not, and big business at that. Big business needs big money. Lose attendance figures abroad and thereafter at home and the business dies!
Just observe Namibia and Zimbabwe for examples of the future of uncompetitive teams!
In order to enlarge the component of players “of colour†in the national teams (including franchise teams) the representative component of such players and supporters MUST firstly be swelled across the lower (feeder) echelons.
If not, then Rugby, or at least professional rugby, in SA is doomed.
Let’s hope that sanity – or business sense – eventually does dictate!
26 Jul 2007, 11:38 am
When will these idiots realise that rugby is not played traditionally by the black community. Their preferred sports is cricket, soccer, athletics and boxing
It has been documented all over the world. Rugby is a sport played by the higher income class. This can be seen in England, Argentina, South Africa, France
CATCH A WAKE UP
26 Jul 2007, 11:43 am
cyberscamp
It is easy to call it business sense because it favours you. Unfortunately, i see your argument as the same as people who stocked up on cans before Mandela’s release and had “end of the world parties” before the ’94 elections.
Zimbabwe and Namibia were never forces in sport and Namibia has never been a team of colour.
Transformation has not happened as it should and when the government steps in, nobody to blame other than the boneheads that run the game.
The Spears were the middle ground that could have settled the debate. Every week i see players black and white from Spears territory doing so well for other provinces and then i wait for the Lions to deliver another piss-poor show.
26 Jul 2007, 11:44 am
79
Where do you live? I am black and I know over a hundred black players who play club rugby in Durban and Pmb. Do the Math. A lot of black people play the sport. In a few years they will out number white players is numbers.
26 Jul 2007, 11:46 am
Yeah Coach
Love to know where you got that info from…
One hell of a thumb you must have to suck
26 Jul 2007, 11:47 am
skunk
He is clueless – the soweto rugby club was formed through EC mine workers. Saying cricket is more popular than rugby is a really stupid statement.
26 Jul 2007, 11:50 am
Kevin
The problem is we are too rigid in our ways. The fear was that it would have killed a traditional powerhouse of SA rugby.
Traditions are there to be redefined.
26 Jul 2007, 11:56 am
jeez i didn’t know Tackler can actually talk sense… but the only thing you are probably missing Tackles is… racism leads to wars and bombings… its not the same with arguing with your neighbour about her dog ‘s dumpings in your side of the fence… and in sa it was designed… it will take another re-designing to try make it right…
26 Jul 2007, 11:58 am
Mark….. very well written article. I was thinking the other day if there are more than just ‘transformation’ issues at stake here. Let me explain. Subconsciously I think we (humans) will always feel more comfortable within our own culture. Look at British football. Benetiz at Liverpool has surrounded himself with Spanish players. Arsene Wegner at Arsenal has surrounded himself with French players. Even Mourinho at Chelsea brought in a few Portuguese players! That is not an excuse for not including the black talent coming through……but its another factor to consider…….we sa humans are predisposed towards our own ilk.
26 Jul 2007, 11:59 am
post 86………we AS humans are predisposed towards our own ilk. Sorry!
26 Jul 2007, 12:12 pm
We were the laughing stock at the Cricket World Cup and the day we send anything but our best 30 Rugby players to the world cup Rugby ,is the day that all Rugby supporters in this country start supporting Yukskei !( Yes we still the world champs at Yukskei )
There is enough ethnic talent at Craven Week for us to start producing more brilliant Black players ,i just wish the Polititians would stop using sport to get votes .
26 Jul 2007, 12:12 pm
#87 What does that mean.
26 Jul 2007, 12:23 pm
#80 Kevin w: Favours me? In what possible way – I am a professional rugby coach in the UK?
Moreover I was an ANC member when the party was still illegal in SA. I was also a member at the founding meeting of the the UDF – one of the the very first signatories on the founding constitution! I thereafter went into exile in a neighbouring country etc, etc – eventually ending up in the UK.
So really, do try to think before you make assumptions and completely unjustified statements!
What I was trying to present to you (all SAcans) was that rugby is a business – and MUST be treated as such.
In other words decisions involving the future of the professional aspect of Rugby (as opposed to informal and amateur rugby) should always be taken from a financial perspective – in the same fashion that governments do not regulate good businesses out of existence.
If any other government does what the Zimbabwe government did to both its cricket and rugby unions, and in so doing destroys the credibility (which is ultimately based upon the competitiveness) of the sport, then the revenues are directly affected and the sport eventually dies.
When that happens the business machine that drives the existence and momentum of the sport itself goes into a permanent and terminal decline and the entire country suffers as a result!
Ad that is not a political issue as such, for it is simply an economic fact!
26 Jul 2007, 12:45 pm
I have read most of your comments and realized that what Steve Biko once said is the sad truth in SA today. He said “black man, you are alone.” If anything, this blog has proven that!!!
26 Jul 2007, 12:59 pm
Azza
That was 30 years ago!
Surely it doesn’t still apply now ?
26 Jul 2007, 13:00 pm
Dawn. very true indeed.hamster-wheel.
Keo makes some valid points…but from my perspective it’s a glass-house scenario: of all the people he ‘employs’(if Ig,ryan,jc,simon are indeed employees) just how many are black?Is this website transformed i.e any black contributors? – because its proprietor constantly shows indignation at the myriad arguments arising from transformation in sport (and lack thereof).
ALL FACETS of society in our country require transformation.The two most crucial things to its success are buy-in from the powers that be(i.e employers) and also a workable implementation plan with regard to sport i.e bottom-up and not top-down.
26 Jul 2007, 13:14 pm
i started writing something then just got soooooo bored and deleted it….. in the words of Madonna! “we heard this all before”
black white black white black white.. How can there ever be unity when there is segregation by the leaders?
The solution is simple ” forget about colour and start investing money into disadvantaged areas! Sound easy? It really is!
26 Jul 2007, 13:15 pm
all the rest is just hot air!
26 Jul 2007, 13:17 pm
Azza, didnt you know this. Is there anything a White man has done or ever will do for a Black man. Equal opportunity, merit, access to facilities….. you wish. On average, White okes dont like us, dont care to like us and hate the fact that we share the same air as them…..on average. My man they never even said sorry for apartheid and I seriously doubt they even felt bad. A Black man cant and never will be able to do anything in their eyes. Accept this, its the reality of our countrymen…..in general. Those that dont fall into the general category never ever stand up for right and justice so I have zero problem in making broad sweeping statements. They are all the same.
Look at this site. How often do they try and paint Black anything as incompetent, lazzy, not to be trusted etc etc. Have they even bothered to expose the blantant rascism that exist in Rugby. Where are all the High School 1st team and u19/u21 Black players from the last decade.
My brother, we dont need their approval or opinions on matters. Their interest are narrow and run along racial lines. As such, we having the political power need to legislate transformation forcing every representative level and provincial team to have a predetermined percentage of players of colour. Full stop. Nothing else will work. DOnt for a second think White people in general will do the right thing of opening up their instituitions, structures and Rugby to include us out of their free will. Dont forget that we are sub-human to them. My advise to you, dont even feel bad. Leave them (in general) with Tony Leon and his cronies in the never never land of irrelavance. We’ll make this land great….with or without them.
26 Jul 2007, 13:23 pm
Nice Odogg…. you also still living in the past!
26 Jul 2007, 13:25 pm
Hellooooo odogg!
26 Jul 2007, 13:25 pm
“The blacks are tired of standing at the touchlines to witness a game that they should be playing. They want to do things for themselves and all by themselves.” Steve Biko!
last line sounds alot like something a boer would say!
26 Jul 2007, 13:26 pm
DD, you tell me whats changed about attitudes towards Black people at large. We are telling you the truth, as it is. We reached out to you guys in 1994 and you okes aint done jack to reach back and rebuild this country. Once again, whats changed about your attitudes towards us.
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