South African Political Interference in Sport Increases Dramatically

[Goughy]

South Africa is about to pass the 'Sports and Recreation Amendment Bill'.

This bill with have far reaching implications and will make politicians in charge of sport and have the power of the law behind them.

Basically, the Government will make all sporting bodies (eg Cricket, Rugby etc) sign a legal contract laying out the conditions of targets etc, transformation initiatives etc.

If what the government madates in these contracts with the Organisations and Federations isnt met then the Minister for Sport will intervene and the Government will do what it thinks with regards to selection and projects.

The first battle looks to be the South African Olympic team. In the last Olympics the team was 65% white. It has now been said that when the new law comes to pass that this will never be allowed again and that selection will be based on Government policy which dictates that selection will be done on demographics rather than merit.

Its a very worrying scenario where most of what is being done is about power games and sport is the eventual loser.

 

[atisha_ro]

this is karma
same old thing, except now whites are hunted down.
they will learn the lesson someday.

 

[Goughy]

this is karma
same old thing, except now whites are hunted down.
they will learn the lesson someday.

WTF?

 

[atisha_ro]

i mean, if you make colour a condition for selection in a sports team (we're talking about sports here), this is another form of racial politics.
when SA will start to lose games and medals because of that, they will learn their lesson.

 

[Craig]

See what I meant about political point scoring in the Pakistan blunders thread. In the end what is the point of working hard (unless you are so god given talented it isn't funny) if you know that it would between a white and/or coloured/black cricketer, said latter would get the gig.

I thought winning and being the best, but clearly I was wrong.

 

[GIMH]

I don't like to get too involved in this subject. I was reading about the Rugby team on Sunday though. there's some player, he's been picked for the national team, and is white, but has been picked as an honorary coloured because his father was part of the anti-apartheid movement. Apparently he's a good player, but there are 5 or 6 better in his position.

Whole thing just seems wrong to me.

 

[Goughy]

I don't like to get too involved in this subject. I was reading about the Rugby team on Sunday though. there's some player, he's been picked for the national team, and is white, but has been picked as an honorary coloured because his father was part of the anti-apartheid movement. Apparently he's a good player, but there are 5 or 6 better in his position.

Whole thing just seems wrong to me.

The Luke Watson Affair. Very messy indeed.

Watson is a good player (though cases can be made that there are a number better than him at his position).

The coach has not been picking him and had no interest in it. Watson has been fighting his battles in the press and has been very vocal about his non-inclusion including saying its because his father played mixed race rugby during apartheid.

Anyway he is included in the squad without the coach knowing. Basically forced into the squad by 'higher powers'. Jake White, the coach, picks a squad of 45. He makes sure that he has a full sqaud and that Watson has to be added as the 46th player to further signify that he is not a real squad member.

A very messy affair and tough for Watson to be in that position. He was snubbed by his teammates (which seems on face value a little harsh) but that was for doing all his talking in public and the press.

Really though this type of stuff is high profile but the tip of the iceberg especially with this new law coming in that means squad selection can be a matter of Government policy

 

[GIMH]

There should be ICC laws preventing such a thing. I'm sure FIFA have such laws.

 

[TT Boy]

i mean, if you make colour a condition for selection in a sports team (we're talking about sports here), this is another form of racial politics.
when SA will start to lose games and medals because of that, they will learn their lesson.

RSA left the 2004 Olympics with less medals than Kazakhstan and Chinese Taipei, so I really don’t think sporting failures such as the ones seen in 2004 are going to be enough to change any sort of stance the Government has in regard to regeneration and it’s mantra of abolishing sporting inequalities apparent in South Africa.

If anyone has a spare half hour, his the ‘Bill’ via PDF.

http://www.srsa.gov.za/ClientFiles/NSR AMENDMENT BILL.FINAL_COMMITTEE APPROVED VERSION.pdf
http://www.srsa.gov.za/Legislation.asp

 

[vic_orthdox]

this is karma
same old thing, except now whites are hunted down.
they will learn the lesson someday.

Not really sure how appropriate that is.

I think that there is something wrong when political structures and sporting structures become too incestual. There should be a pretty strong separation of powers.

 

[Richard]

There should be ICC laws preventing such a thing. I'm sure FIFA have such laws.

I$C$C "can't get involved in domestic disputes".

 

[GIMH]

Pathetic...

 

[TT Boy]

There should be ICC laws preventing such a thing. I'm sure FIFA have such laws.

Yeah they do, FIFA suspended Greece from all footballing activities in 2006 after continued Greek government interference in the running of the Greek FA aka the Hellenic Football Federation. You would think FIFA would do exactly the same thing if the South African government interfered with the SAFA.

Would be pretty hard to enforce in cricket if only because what goes on in the PCB, BCCI and BCCSL. Vast majority of the international cricket boards are very political or politicised, ICC would be opening a real big can of worms they probably could do without.

 

[TT Boy]

I$C$C "can't get involved in domestic disputes".

Well that's ok for it's an issue not a dispute.

 

[Richard]

Haha, they'd find a way of making it something they can't get involved in.

 

[open365]

Is this likely to have any visible effect on the South African team in the near future?

 

[honestbharani]

I can understand Governments giving more scholarships and stuff like that (essentially opportunies to develop as a youngster) to the deprived classes (the backward and scheduled classes in India, the colored population in RSA) in both sports and other fields but when it comes down to picking professionals, there should be no two ways. The best qualified should be picked and that should be that.

that is not what is happening, either in India (although thankfully, not in sports) or in RSA and I think the price that will have to be paid will be pretty huge.

 

[PY]

Yeah they do, FIFA suspended Greece from all footballing activities in 2006 after continued Greek government interference in the running of the Greek FA aka the Hellenic Football Federation. You would think FIFA would do exactly the same thing if the South African government interfered with the SAFA.

From my memory of watching South African football, which is admittedly a little sketchy, isn't there a predominance of black footballers to such a degree that the slant would be the other way towards having to include more white footballers? I may be completely wrong.

Dislike issues affecting sport which aren't sport-related but it seems it's impossible to separate them out. I have to admit that I probably don't know enough to talk about it without getting things wrong though it looks a dangerous road to head down.

 

[BoyBrumby]

The Luke Watson Affair. Very messy indeed.

Watson is a good player (though cases can be made that there are a number better than him at his position).

The coach has not been picking him and had no interest in it. Watson has been fighting his battles in the press and has been very vocal about his non-inclusion including saying its because his father played mixed race rugby during apartheid.

Anyway he is included in the squad without the coach knowing. Basically forced into the squad by 'higher powers'. Jake White, the coach, picks a squad of 45. He makes sure that he has a full sqaud and that Watson has to be added as the 46th player to further signify that he is not a real squad member.

A very messy affair and tough for Watson to be in that position. He was snubbed by his teammates (which seems on face value a little harsh) but that was for doing all his talking in public and the press.

Really though this type of stuff is high profile but the tip of the iceberg especially with this new law coming in that means squad selection can be a matter of Government policy

I don't wanna derail the thread too much, but originally Watson's exclusion was probably due to a difference in Rugby philosophy for mine. Or at least it can be justified on those grounds anyway.

In a nutshell Jake White considers him to be too small. He's about 6' & the guys in occupation (Smith & Burger) are both over 6' 4". Watson probably has a case to be peed off on purely Rugby grounds in that he's more of a traditional ball-winning openside flanker in the McCaw, Back or George Smith mode than White's preferred options (he certainly gets penalised less than Burger too), but it's clear White has a thing for big meat. That much is obvious when you look at who he plays at 10.

It's a bit unfortunate that Watson has decided to play the race card (after a fashion), which does look rather like sour grapes to me so I would have some sympathy for his team-mates snubbing him a bit.

 

[Perm]

but it's clear White has a thing for big meat.