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Absa and Hoskins in hot water
“This is surely the end of my 34-year relationship with this bank. It was getting worse the last seven years any way--- and now sports politics!!! No thanks. I’m on my way….. !!!!” and “....I don’t do business with racist banks like Absa, I shall be closing my account with Absa tomorrow and moving to …” These two comments represent the main thrust of the thousands on the Internet following the news that Absa has expressed its dissatisfaction with the state of transformation and a subsequent letter by SA Rugby president Oregan Hoskins to all provincial unions on the matter.
News of Hoskins’ letter to the presidents of the 14 Currie Cup unions that Absa as rugby’s main sponsor has expressed concern about a “serious lack of commitment to transformation” was widely interpreted as a call for the return of racial quotas in the sport.
He asked his member unions to deal with the apparent lack of transformation with immediate effect.
While the majority of the traditional media houses ignored the news, the civil rights group AfriForum immediately responded with a campaign on mainly the social media networks. Within 24 hours a text-message chain on cellphones counted more than 12 000 transmissions, more than 9 000 people subscribed to an online petition and a special Facebook group had more than 1 300 members.
Both Absa and Hoskins have since denied that there is a call or the intention to return to a system of racial quotas for rugby teams. But in the face of the absence of any clear indication of exactly what was meant by the original message, the campaign on the social media was still gaining momentum early in the week.
Many of the posted comments also picked up on one of the themes in the original statement by AfriForum’s Kallie Kriel that “as team sponsor of Bafana Bafana, Absa did not say a word when this soccer team participated with only black players in the World Cup tournament”.
Most of the comments expressed their support for any team irrespective of its racial mix provided that it was selected on a basis of merit. Some suggested that at least the demographic mix of players should be taken into consideration since from school-level upwards the vast majority of players involved in the system are white.
Although exact statistics were not immediately available it would seem that most of the players who presently make it to senior provincial and national levels of the game come from traditional rugby-playing schools, who have historically been exclusively white.
It would seem as if rugby is suffering from a similar problem to broad-based black economic empowerment where transformation efforts have concentrated benefits on a small elite and do not reach the broad grassroots level. The initial concentration on a quota system, which created a shortcut to window dressing, is the likely cause of this.
There have also been concerns expressed in recent years that in the era of professional rugby, where the decision to keep on playing rugby after school or tertiary education often becomes a career decision, too many promising players get lost. While some initiatives have been launched to revive club rugby, it does not seem to present an adequate bridge from junior to senior level to keep more players in the system.
Maybe some good could still come from the present furore around the racial mix of senior teams if it leads to more energy and resources being channelled into taking rugby to township schools, getting talented schoolboy players involved at junior level in traditional rugby-playing schools, or even a schoolboy league at club level
can show their OWN commitment by providing;
i) Fee free bank accounts for all previously disadvanraged people
ii) Interest free home loans to all previously disadvantaged people.
iii) Affirmative employment at (the higest level) to all pdp's, irrespective of ability. In fact 2 or 3, to do the work of 1 should be considered. And the pay should be at least double of the usual employee
What do the rugby supporters think ? ? ?