CSA sidesteps moral landmine
9 Aug 2007
Cricket SA will support tours to Zimbabwe as long as they are full ICC members and the SA government allows them to.
This follows media criticism of South Africa A’s current Zimbabwean tour. Australia and the West Indies have both cancelled scheduled tours to Zimbabwe recently due to its on-going political turmoil and human rights abuses.
However, new CSA president Norman Arendse said South Africa would not follow their example.
“The Zimbabwe issue was debated fully, and at length, at the ICC annual general meeting held in London in late June this year. Despite initial criticism from countries like Australia, England and New Zealand, after full debate and discussion, the full member countries of the ICC unanimously agreed to retain Zimbabwe as a full member.
“The full member countries also agreed it is not for the ICC to take up any moral or political stance on any issue in any of the full member countries. CSA is therefore committed to fulfilling its ICC obligations, and will only not do so, if instructed by the South African government whether to play there or not.
Arendse is likely to face ongoing claims that he is not impartial on the issue. As a lawyer, he was retained by Zimbabwe Cricket to act against its own rebel players, led by Heath Streak, in 2004.
35 Comments
9 Aug 2007, 17:16 pm
Stand together comrades!!!
“The full member countries also agreed it is not for the ICC to take up any moral or political stance on any issue in any of the full member countries.”
Funny that, what was the deal with banning SA in the 70′s and 80′s then?
9 Aug 2007, 17:27 pm
Ceasar washing his hands in innocence, but having the power to do something about the situation. It’s a paradox and nothing more than saying “we will turn a blind eye to the things in Zim so that we can still focus on important issues like cricket and not worry about the importance of life itself as it is secondary to my big salary”.
9 Aug 2007, 17:44 pm
So, at the ICC, Zimbabwe were criticised by Australia, England and New Zealand.
That infers they were supported by West Indies, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and South Africa, so any vote would have been 3-5, presumably they made it unanimous for the sake of unity.
There is a split looming, and you can see which side of that split South Africa will land on.
9 Aug 2007, 17:46 pm
This is a travesty.
I am not sure what is more of a disgrace – what is happening in Zim or the fact that our administrators/politicians are so silent. Their lack of action in this regard means they are equally to blame for what is happening there. It is an embarressment.
Easy to say, but players should stand up and refuse to go. But that will never happen as it would mean the end of their cricket careers ala Errol Stewart.
What an embarresment to our country these “administators” are
9 Aug 2007, 17:46 pm
Isnt it ironic that the ANC goverment allows tours to Zim with all there human rights abuses.And they,the ANC,were the same people who demanded that apartheid south africa should be banned from all sport.Isnt the 2 cases the same?
9 Aug 2007, 17:47 pm
I doubt whether West Indies supported them seeing they cancelled a tour.
Fact is we will never know – well apart from one thing SA definately supported them.
Cant see England support them given what has gone on in the last couple of years…
9 Aug 2007, 17:57 pm
Don’t forget to take your own beer boys.
There is no more beer in Zim., the pubs have run dry.
9 Aug 2007, 18:16 pm
Atleast you can tell your friends that you where on a multi-million vacation if you visit Zimbabwe…
9 Aug 2007, 18:31 pm
little signs popping up everywhere small but significant.
Its a bloody disgrace cause, in effect we condoning whats going on over there.
Well hopefully Forest Whitaker will still be around to portray old mugabe.
9 Aug 2007, 19:38 pm
ZIM has a team full of quotas, so the tour should go on!!
This is the way the Planet is meant to work!
9 Aug 2007, 21:27 pm
Welcome to SA in the new century. Forget all the bullshit about human rights etc, it’s all about African power and revenge against the colonial establishment. viva viva! and queueing after at UN kitchens for a bit of pap.
9 Aug 2007, 22:25 pm
It could be argued that China has political turmoil (any Taiwanese or Tibetan would say so) and well documented human rights violations, yet we are all going to the Olympic games…
9 Aug 2007, 23:49 pm
the only news regarding zimbabwe that could shock, or surprise me would be one of the following:
1. Mugabe dies
2. Mugabe quits
3. Mugabe’s fails to win re-election
4. SA denounce the atrocities in Zimbabwe and urge the country to change
5. Any African leader denounces as above.
otherwise it is business as usual in Africa.
9 Aug 2007, 23:52 pm
12- ricane. you are dead right. china has operated behind a curtain for so long, with the world at large mostly oblivious to the atrocities that go on there.
the big difference is that china is changing – albeit slowly. but for a beast of its size it is definitely going in the right direction.
10 Aug 2007, 01:20 am
Guys there is a difference. There’s no Apartheid in Zim. Obviously genocide does not qualify for expulsion.
#13: Dog bites Mugabe- and dies
As for China, well.They are too tough to tackle.Beware of the yellow peril – Dominee
10 Aug 2007, 01:37 am
AJ – wealthy governments are also less willing to intervene in genocide and other atrocities these days unless the are committed by countries with vast oil supplies.
surely the problems in darfur would have been settled long ago if sudan only had something which the west (read amercia) valued higher than human lives.
10 Aug 2007, 01:43 am
Munki, first of all I am very pro-America having lived there for a number of years and having a greencard.Secondly,imagine a world without the US. It will be mayhem. Go back a couple of decades…Africa was a prosperous continent.No poverty no tribal fights.Now? Its a basket case eg Zimbabwe.The begging bowls are out! Exploitation by white imperialists? I rather have that then the genocide and tribal wars.Having said that I admire countries like Namibia, Mocambique, Lesotho and Botswana. They have embraced westernasation and white folk are welcomed. The yoke of hatred has been buried.Respect history but move on.
10 Aug 2007, 01:52 am
Shame on you, Cricket SA. Show some balls for a change.
Further proof that all the intellectual ramblings in documents like Thabo’s “African Renaissance” and more recent NEPAD utterances are just that: intellectual ramblings.
The authors like to portray themselves as human rights champions and democrats but constantly fail to come even close to living up to their noble ideals and words.
What’s really frightening is there’s no skaam. Nothing, niks, foggol.
Well, remember, gentlemen, it’s by your actions that you will be judged.
And on addressing political thuggery and despotic behaviour in Africa, you have failed miserably.
10 Aug 2007, 02:15 am
Joe Maher # 18
I think your summing up of this is on a par with the great American political comedian Bill Maher.
You so on target.
Mbeki jy het die plot lank al weggegooi. Te veel Brandewyn en visions of Bob’s Mugabe’s backside.
Wouter Marais, Mr.Gert Okert, Charles Teller and Sinita Rabinovitz, Mimps Meiring, the Manager and Philemon would agree too!
10 Aug 2007, 02:32 am
12# Right, China still has some Human Rights issues.
But at least there is no unemployment, no hungry children, and you can get a cold beer 24 hours a day anywhere…
It took Mugabe only 25 years to demolish one of the most prosperous and wealthy nations on the continent, and to kill the goose who laid the golden eggs, the Rhodesian farmer.
SA, take heed. Be careful of transformation Zim style.
10 Aug 2007, 03:14 am
if they tour, will they take their own food and water??
10 Aug 2007, 03:52 am
#17 please read up on your history and try and get an understanding of how things work in Africa before you start making rash comments like the above.
10 Aug 2007, 03:56 am
#19 Aaah, Jinx, you’ve just released some wonderful memories – Wouter, Charles and the crew.
Lovely stuff – can hear the restaurant skit playing out in my head…
Mimps and Wouter…do you mind if I smoke…you can go up in flames for all I care.
Not to mention the cottage pie served by Philimon…
Back to work, back to reality.
10 Aug 2007, 04:24 am
Nads prove me wrong. Dont know about you but as a former journalist working on the Africa Bureaux I visited most of this countries in the 60′s and 70′s so dont tell me about getting an understanding. I think South Africa is a good example. Take South Africa pre 1994 and look at it now!
10 Aug 2007, 04:24 am
Joe Maher
Mimps and Wouter at the restuarant called the Window Box.
Hilarious…”you want some Worcestershire sauce”
10 Aug 2007, 05:42 am
Jinx…and then there was Charles Teller test-driving an old banger from ACME Car Sales, finds a tin of old boiled sweets in the cubbie hole and the scumbag salesman says “we’ll throw those in for nothing”.
Later in the piece, there’s a hell of a noise, Charles reckons it’s a ‘big end’ that’s gone and scumbag salesman fires back with a reassuring “No, Mr Teller, she’s pre-big ends”.
And then the oke on the train who’s running away from home, heading for Cape Town to try his hand at ‘showbiz’.
Priceless stuff. Any idea where one can get copies of that material?
Cheers
10 Aug 2007, 08:26 am
#19. It’s Johnnie Black by the way!
10 Aug 2007, 08:53 am
Its a damn shame! SA should be the first team to cancel trips to Zimbabwe.
10 Aug 2007, 08:54 am
#5 Totally agree.
10 Aug 2007, 09:28 am
Aussiejoe,
Although Namibia is in a much better position than SA in many respects, I think you need to re-visit your thoughts embracing westernasation and how welcome ‘white folk’ (as you put it) are really.
Having no open laws of discrimination does not mean it does not exist…
Sure Namibia is a blueprint for a lot of democratic governments, but having the right structures in place does not mean much if you sit with bad leadership in certain sectors or unqualified people making really bad decisions within this structure.
Leadership defines a country, not its laws.
10 Aug 2007, 15:11 pm
Nads prove me wrong. Dont know about you but as a former journalist working on the Africa Bureaux I visited most of this countries in the 60’s and 70’s so dont tell me about getting an understanding. I think South Africa is a good example. Take South Africa pre 1994 and look at it now!
Comment by aussiejoe : August 10, 2007 @ 4:24 am
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well my friend it depends on which side your were pre 94,murders,rapes,tortures to name a few thing that you turned a blind eye on, as you say you are a former journalist.
10 Aug 2007, 18:17 pm
The cricketers and spectators arent to blame for whats happening in Zimbabwe. all these countries should play them. The Mugabe issue should be solved politically, politics should have nothing to do with sport. But of course this wont happen. He single handedly has turned that beautiful and fruitful country into a basket case, its so messed up I think even if the opposition came into power, they would have no hope of turning it around quickly. I heard Zim was becoming part of the SA monetary area? That would be a quick step to starting getting it right. It is sinister to me that the SA government are so quiet on the Mugabe issue, makes me suspect their motives. The cricket however, should go on in my opinion.
11 Aug 2007, 03:28 am
#31
eth_ig_er
You’re right, of course. But no better, if you choose to turn a blind eye to the savagery of the Mugabe regime.
The fact that he’s a “brother in the struggle” should not enter the equation if you’re truly committed to human rights and dignity.
He’s a dictatorial thug, a butcher and it’s about time the SA Government and people like you – who are so quick to highlight ‘white’ atrocities – faced that reality.
Failing to do some makes you a hypocrit, a charlatan, little better than the butcher himself.
Acknowledging it gives the continent a glimmer of hope.
11 Aug 2007, 13:47 pm
#33
joe maher
i wasn’t say we should turn a blind eye on zim,i was merely responding to aussiejoe to whether things were good/bad pre 94.
14 Aug 2007, 03:16 am
#30Agree with your good leadership definition. However,good leadership establishes law and order.
Do you think Mandella was a good leader? The only good thing he did was prevent anarchy. He opened the borders and allowed the comrades from the North in as long as they voted ANC.Now? The crime syndicates are controlled and organised by migrants.Yes, there was crime in the good ol days but not on the scale it is now.In those days you could still walk your dog and drive at a reasonable speed.Now you cant- and you live behind 7ft high electrified walls.
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