The quota comments and threats of Mr. Fikile Mbalula, South Africa’s minister of Sport, is so far removed from the reality of the professional sporting world and so dangerously destructive to nation building that it will undoubtedly give him the award for ‘Clown of the week”, Adv. Anton Alberts, the FF Plus’ parliamentary spokesperson on Sport, says.
Mbalula’s comments the past weekend that the country’s national sporting teams will have to include 60% black players and that they will be barred from participating internationally if the ‘transformation targets’ are not met, caused shock-waves in sporting circles.
According to Adv. Alberts, this public indignation about Mbalula’s comments shows that the minister has stirred up a hornet’s nest.
“The arrogance and ignorance which appear from the proposals is astonishing. Where sport was used, starting with the first Rugby World Cup in 1995 until the last Soccer World Cup in South Africa in 2010, to promote nation building, it is now being used to cause division and racial alienation.
“The arrogance of Mbalula to threaten the world that our teams will not participate against them, takes one’s breath away.
“Did he for one second think the impact it would have on sponsorships and the support of sports such as rugby and cricket if the teams would not compete at all anymore? It will not only destroy sports people’s careers and lives, but it will also destroy sport in South Africa.
"The example of soccer has been used a lot. But it could be dusted down for to be used as an example again. Bafana was until recently still ranked 54th on the Fifa’s List of Rankings with a team of nearly exclusively black players. Where are the quotas for this team which is used for other sports such as rugby and cricket?
“Mbalula and the ANC are not satisfied with merit and performance. They will callously break something that works down and destroy it in the name of transformation, just like they are currently doing with South Africa and will thereafter blame apartheid.
“For this behaviour, we cannot but award this week’s ‘Clown of the Week Award’ of the FF Plus to Mbalula. And it would most probably be a very comical game if the clown games hadn’t been so dangerous for the country,” says Adv. Alberts.
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