StephenZA
Hall of Fame Member
I don`t totally agree with that because club cricket tends to be the greatest stumbling block for players from disadvantaged areas and backgrounds.... but this debate has been simplified way to much. I agree that sport quotas are there to pander to the public and serve little practical good.
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(Long ramble to follow...)
However, I agree with the principle of quotas because there is to much historic cultural exclusion in SA society for there not to be quotas. An example in the first world would be how female employers are sometimes excluded due to not being a part of the boys club (particularly historically), hence the spotlight on this sort of discrimination. But like anything if not implemented correctly by everybody especially government people just take advantage of the situation.
My concern and problems with quotas are 2 fold. Firstly racial discrimination is written into our constitution helping the 80%, majority, and discriminating against 10%; already there is a larger rich black elite population in SA than white but the discrimination is along lines of colour rather than economic. But a lot of the fault with current quotas lies with big business; BEE (black empowerment or some variation) has been around for 20+ years now and like always rather than people following the principal of what was trying to be achieved they gave lip service; Paying black rich powerful business men, and the like, to sit on boards and be CEO`s doing nothing so that they could say they were BEE compliant, without actually achieving anything regarding proper redistribution of wealth and helping previously disadvantaged up the ladder. Forced quotas both at business and sport level are an attempt to overcome this sort of problem... but is having a huge negative impact on the SA society.
Anecdotally, I have an acquaintance who works in a large dentist office, the only black person who works in the office is the cleaner, everybody else is white, he is very happy about this. There are well qualified black dentists in SA available, but because there is no direct influence from government to effect this sort of business, it stays within the family and very protected regardless (if understandably) and this is a problem. At the same time I have one of my best friends who is leaving for Australia, he has a PhD in computing science/mathematics and has been lecturing at the university for 8 years. The university has told him he will not be moved to a senior lecture role because he is not black even though there are 2 current vacant positions. The best he can hope for is maybe in 5 to 7 years time. Neither of these scenarios are good for the future of SA. Anybody who is against quotas would use my friend leaving as an example of why they are bad... anybody for quotas would use the dentists office as an example of why they are needed. Neither are right or wrong they only looking at part of the issue.
In effect the problem is not the quotas themselves it is not that there is a dividing lines economic or cultural etc it is the fact that very few people in SA (or the rest of the world) don`t complain when something effects them negatively, even if for larger benefit, and will do what ever they can to manipulate the system for themselves white or black all the way from government to business, creating corruption, nepotism and incompetence. The only way SA will overcome these issues is by growing educationally and economically, and the current government incompetence and corruption does not allow it.
But none of this discussion makes any difference, quotas will remain and may or may not do some good in the long run; hopefully it does more good than bad and hopefully they will no longer be required sooner rather than later. But all we can do is cross fingers and hope.
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