Antidote to racism and rage in rugby? Updated 9-11 2008

Rugby Racism Spat May Cause Soweto Club to Leave Main Union
By Vernon Wessels

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) — The Soweto Rugby Club, which started Johannesburg’s first senior black rugby team, threatened to quit the main provincial union, saying its claims of racist abuse weren’t dealt with. The union denied the allegation.

The spat is the latest race-related dispute to hit South African rugby, seen as a bastion of white supremacy in the apartheid era that ended in 1994. Johannesburg’s Star newspaper today led its front page with the headline “New Racism Row Rocks Rugby.”

On Aug. 30 a black female spectator was attacked by white supporters at a Tri-Nations match between the national team, the Springboks, and Australia. Last week, the country’s first black national coach, Peter De Villiers, threatened to quit over allegations, that he denied, of the existence of a sex tape involving him and an unidentified woman in a parking lot.

“We’ve lost complete faith in the union,” Asad Bhorat, the deputy chairman of the 12-year-old Soweto Rugby Club, said in an interview today. “When it comes to protecting players against racism, they don’t do it. There is no benefit to being part of the union.”

During club matches, black players are often called “kaffirs” — a highly derogatory term, Bhorat said, with the latest incident happening two weeks ago in front of a referee. The union is opposed to racism and looks at all complaints in a “very serious light,” said Peet Buys, the union’s corporate director, adding the club never lodged an official complaint.

“It does happen in the heat of the moment” that players use racist slurs, Buys said. “It doesn’t happen all the time. All complaints will be severely handled if they are reported through the normal channels. We don’t tolerate it.”

Break-Away Union

The club, which has 150 black players and runs programs for another 3,000 schoolchildren in the township, plans to become a stand-alone union, Bhorat said. The club plans to ask Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile to intervene.

The provincial organization, the Golden Lions Rugby Union, backs the Lions, one of five South African teams in the Super 14 competition, which includes competitors from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. This year the Lions came last.

President Thabo Mbeki’s government has pushed for sport to be more representative of the population. South Africa’s 22-man rugby squad, which won the World Cup in France last year, included 20 white players. White South Africans account for about 9.1 percent of the country’s 48.5 million people. Last week, the Springbok team joined in condemnation of the attack on the spectator.

Buys didn’t have details on the number of racism complaints.

Soweto temporarily cut its affiliation with the union in 2006 after a white player was given a suspended sentence for calling one of its black players a “kaffir,” Bhorat said. It then asked the union to put in place processes to deal with racism, which, he said, hasn’t happened. The union denies this.

Levels of Punishment

“We need a structure, an anti-racist committee, so that we can agree on the levels of punishment,” Bhorat said.

The union has a disciplinary committee that meets every Tuesday night and is joined by a racism committee should any complaints be made of racial incidents, Buys said. The union has 20 clubs and another 14 clubs that are aimed at upcoming black players around Johannesburg.

While it will be disappointing to lose the club as a member, the union will still find a way of servicing the township’s rugby needs, Buys said, without being able to give details.

It is “laughable” that the club wants to convert to a union as it doesn’t have enough money or players, he added. “There has been a breakdown with the management” of the club, he said, declining to comment further.

If you think that rugby in South Africa is a powder keg right now, fasten your seat belt for November.

This dust up at Coca Cola Park with Ziningi Shibambo being physically and verbally abused by three white louts in public, however abhorrent, is but a miniscule reflection of the deep divisions and hate and loathing that exist in rugby in South Africa. But it is a reflection nonetheless of our society and the people in rugby.

What example are we setting for the youth and people of South Africa?

Do not be fooled by the fact that this happened at Ellis Park in some so called “Omigosh!” isolated incident and that SA Rugby trumpeting that there is a R10 000 REWARD to catch the culprits, is an antidote to racism and offensive behaviour.

Ten thousand rand? Oh and some stickers the Lions will stick up declaring their opposition to racism? This at a stadium of 54 000 paying an average of R200 for some R10m in revenues on the day?

Then there are the sponsors and broadcasters to which SA Rugby and all its 14 Unions are morally and legally obligated to protecting the sponsors’ reputations.

It should be a R100 000 reward leading to the identity of the culprits and a full-on investigation commissioned by the Lions of the institutionalised racism in their province and amongst their referees. This could be carried out by the Human Rights Commission and a report tabled in ten days to SA Rugby’s Presidents Council in an emergency extraordinary meeting as the game is in crisis.

Will this happen? No.

Not a single week passes at the Lions without there being a “racial incident”. It is so bad that it is recognised that there are “serial racists” amongst the referees who, outright, call players of colour the “K-word”. And still nothing is done.

There are no systems in place for the reporting, responding and reaction to such incidents.

What then does one make of SA Rugby’s Transformation Charter? Is it to be believed when they cannot even address and act against known racists within the administration?

I will always champion the causes of meritocracy and performance to make the game greater and stronger, on and off the field, but the fabric of our very game is in peril, as it is undermined and infected with this toxic anti-social behaviour that can be stopped dead and rooted out with a policy of “Zero Tolerance” shown to individuals and clubs for violating the dignity of any person.

All these acts, on a weekly basis, are a serial violation of the SA Rugby Constitution, which states in its second and third paragraphs:

THAT rugby should be played, administered and promoted on a non-racial, non-political and democratic basis;

THAT all persons, irrespective of race, colour, creed or gender, should have the right in whatever capacity to participate, in the game of rugby;

and in Clause 1.2 The national rugby controlling body shall, in all its activities and functions, forbid any form of discrimination based on race, colour creed or gender.

From where you and I are sitting, no action, anywhere, has been taken to sanction a club, fine the club and/or province, or ban players, referees or officials associated with the game from perpetuating this racist behaviour.

It is near impossible and totally unbelievable that this racism only takes place in stadiums at Test matches. This is a daily and weekly occurrence and if SA Rugby wants to be honourable, ethical and uphold its own constitution, then they, the administrators, must as a matter of urgency, establish a Human Rights Advisory panel to investigate, report back and implement sanctions from fines to lifetime bans for the perpetrators of these despicable inhumane acts.

If no real action is taken, then this is an admission by SA Rugby that racialism is condoned and institutionalised in the game and that SA Rugby and its administrators are in violation of their own constitution.

It is an appalling state of affairs when a body like SA Rugby displays such apathy towards the racial abuse vented on their players, officials and fans.

Furthermore, it is an indictment that all is not well in the game and that an urgent intervention is required to purge rugby in South Africa of these repugnant, anti-social delinquents.

Our beloved game is crying!

Race Row in South Africa Set to Explode

The Soweto Rugby Club (SRC) has told the Golden Lions to take a hike due to its perceived inability to tackle racism, opening the door for possible government intervention in the sport nationally.

The move is likely to see a gloves-off approach from critics of the slow pace of transformation, who are angry that rugby has been allowed to operate like a “volkstaat”.

The SRC temporarily suspended affiliation from the league after a racial incident in 2006 involving the Police Rugby Club, but this week it informed the Lions it was disaffiliating from the union itself.

According to the Pretoria News, Lions President Professor Jannie Ferreira, said last night it was an “ongoing saga” and that he did not believe the club’s action was permanent.

He defended the Lion’s transformation efforts and said development officers would continue to work in Soweto and other areas to grow the game.

However, according to one SRC executive member, the club is “gatvol” (South African world for “had enough”) , given that the union has failed to take its complaints seriously and appears to be hoping the problem will eventually disappear.

The SRC says claims the issue is the continued racism, including the use of the K-word.

The club said that last month in an Under-18 match in the North West against the Impala Rustenburg Club, SRC players were labelled as “k******s”.

Meanwhile, the news that the SRC has relegated the Golden Lions Rugby Union to a fulltime sin bin, is likely to impact on today’s PR event by South African Rugby Union boss Oregan Hoskins at Coca-Cola Park.

It will involve the Lions team and Ziningi Shibamba, the woman who was targeted by some racist rugby fans recently.

The incident once more focused the spotlight on racism in the sport.

Some within the SRC, including deputy chairman Dr Asad Bhorat, believe this is a weak attempt at damage control by SA Rugby, given the expected fallout over the club’s decision to walk out for good.

The SRC is to meet Hoskins next week, where it will table its proposal to form a separate provincial union.

SRC General Secretary Luvuyo Matsha said yesterday a separate union was necessary, given the continued marginalisation of blacks in the sport, including in its national and provincial management.

The SRC also plans to write to Sport Minister Makhenkesi Stofile and the National Assembly’s sport and recreation committee to lobby for support.

This follows a meeting on Wednesday with Ferreira and Lions CEO Manie Reyneke, which failed to resolve concerns.

ANC MP and sport committee deputy chairperson Cedric Frolick told Independent Newspapers: “You can’t blame them (the SRC) given the unresolved issues of racism that have been going on for the past three years.”

He said the implications were “quite severe” and “far-reaching” for the future of rugby and would require action from the executive arms of government.

This could well be a case that would allow the minister to intervene in terms of the Sport and Recreation Amendment Act, he said.

Frolick confirmed that the SRC’s concerns would be discussed at the committee’s meeting with Stofile on Tuesday to discuss the department’s annual report.

Ferreira said last night there had been ongoing meetings with the SRC, but “for some reasons things never got off the ground”.

He did not think forming a separate union was feasible.

“They do not have the infrastructure, money or the players to form a separate union.”

Ferreira said referees were under strict instructions to crack down on racial comments in matches and to report these.

The incident at the match in North West was still under investigation, he said, saying that the Lions were committed to transformation but this did not happen overnight.

Unity in South African rugby began 16 years ago as part of reintegration in all the country’s sporting codes.

Critics of the slow pace of transformation in the sport, including Frolick, contend that some of the provincial unions continue to operate as a whites-only “volkstaat”.

With thanks to the Pretoria News