SARU OFFICIALLY PUT RACISM IN WRITING

[Golf Man]

With respect I think you are completely missing the point

Our perceived provincial bias here isn't even related to the issue in South Africa. The Springboks werean ansolute symbol of white apartheid era South Africa - an absolutely reviled state at the time.

The system is not to address racism now so much - ts to give a rocket up the arse f the system as whole, to ensure that the team becomes a more reresentatie,fairer and non racist reflection of the country. This absolutely has to be pushed at the young age groups but without the role doels, the established routes to the top, its unliklley not to work at al

As I said this is a all along term thing - in 20 years ideally SA wil have afar more balanced team picked purely on merit withno debate over the selection (on racial grounds anyway) - although whies will almost certainly still be hugely disproptionately represented. Short term there my be some realtively dodgy decisions (bearing in mind that anybody playing super rugby and being selected for the Springboks is top notch in any case) - theydon't do this and they run the risk of Springboks gfalling back into a reflection of purely white South Africa - would be the death of the Springboks imo

[leinster4life13]

Just popped up in my FB feed, cant vouch for its veracity as an excitable Afrikaner posted it..."so called "supporters against racism" burn a bok jersey with Peter DeVilliers in attendance, whilst calling for more quotas, you cant make this up."

https://www.change.org/p/sabc-remove-pe ... bok-jersey

Bad look for a former national team coach

[simonokeeffe]

Just popped up in my FB feed, cant vouch for its veracity as an excitable Afrikaner posted it..."so called "supporters against racism" burn a bok jersey with Peter DeVilliers in attendance, whilst calling for more quotas, you cant make this up."

https://www.change.org/p/sabc-remove-pe ... bok-jersey

Bad look for a former national team coach

where is he in the photo/was he even there (when jersey was burnt)?

[Flash Gordon]

With respect I think you are completely missing the point

Our perceived provincial bias here isn't even related to the issue in South Africa. The Springboks werean ansolute symbol of white apartheid era South Africa - an absolutely reviled state at the time.

The system is not to address racism now so much - ts to give a rocket up the arse f the system as whole, to ensure that the team becomes a more reresentatie,fairer and non racist reflection of the country. This absolutely has to be pushed at the young age groups but without the role doels, the established routes to the top, its unliklley not to work at al

As I said this is a all along term thing - in 20 years ideally SA wil have afar more balanced team picked purely on merit withno debate over the selection (on racial grounds anyway) - although whies will almost certainly still be hugely disproptionately represented. Short term there my be some realtively dodgy decisions (bearing in mind that anybody playing super rugby and being selected for the Springboks is top notch in any case) - theydon't do this and they run the risk of Springboks gfalling back into a reflection of purely white South Africa - would be the death of the Springboks imo

I think anybody who works in conflict resolution will tell you that, though it may be difficult, you have to leave past prejudices behind and although the Bok symbol represented something less than committed to equality historically that has to stay in the past. Just because a sport was associated with prejudice in the past doesn't mean it has to necessarily be assumed that it still is. by the way, I'm guessing Winnie Mandela's football team didn't have too many white guys on it. We've seen it in Ireland, the GAA is now a flagship for community values and inclusivity - it wasn't always that way. And possibly you could argue the opposite for Ulster rugby.

I was at the Ashes test match last week at the Oval and I was sitting beside a group of Indian lads wearing my Leinster shirt. They had no idea who Leinster were that's because they grew up playing cricket and going to cricket because their parents brought them. Same goes for me, my dad was into rugby, soccer and cricket and those are the sports I like. I think the situation is really that simple in South Africa, white lads are brought down to the rugby club at an early age and black lads to the soccer club because their dad's went there. Unless there are specific allegations of exclusion at clubs or in specific selections this just smacks of populist politcs.

[blockhead]

Court bid to bar Springboks from World Cup over white players
August 31, 2015, 11:22 pm

Johannesburg (AFP) - A virtually unknown South African political party has made an urgent court bid to try and block the Springboks from flying to England next month for the Rugby World Cup, arguing the squad has too many white players.

The Agency for a New Agenda (ANA), which says it broke away from the ruling ANC party in 2013, lodged the application last Friday a few hours before coach Heyneke Meyer named a record nine black players in the 31-man World Cup squad.

The team was "built on racially-exclusionary and racially-biased criteria", which was unconstitutional, said party leader Edward Mokhoanatse.

"So we are asking the court to stop them from going (to England) and order them to surrender their passports," Mokhoanatse told AFP.

The case, which cites Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula and the country's rugby union SARU as respondents, is due to be heard in the High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday.

Traditionally a white Afrikaner sport, rugby became a symbol of national reconciliation when the country's first black president Nelson Mandela famously donned a Springbok jersey when presenting captain Francois Pieenar with the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa.

But the racial composition of the Springboks has remained an emotive public issue, with calls for racial quotas raising fears among some white fans that the selection of players on anything other than merit would weaken the national team.

On Monday, the mainly-Afrikaner Freedom Front Plus said it planned to petition the British High Commission in Pretoria to protest against "political interference in sport in South Africa" -- an apparent reference to what it sees as the inclusion of black players on a racial basis.

"It is unacceptable that South Africa is denied the opportunity to send its best team to the Rugby World Cup" the party said in a statement.

"This type of interference on a racial basis led to an international sport boycott against South Africa under the previous regime."

Britain, the former colonial power, was a leading force in an international boycott of South African teams over racism in sport during the apartheid years.

The two opposing views of the latest team selection appear to reflect the extremes on both sides, however, with some commentators apparently satisfied with the latest team selection and efforts at racial transformation.

While the Freedom Front Plus is represented in parliament, the ANA is not, and has never contested an election.

Party leader Mokhoanatse refused to state the size of its membership.

He said the party has also written to the international rugby union asking it to suspend the membership of South Africa, a major contender in the global showpiece from September 18 to October 31 in England.

Coach Meyer has saturated the squad with experience saying it "has a great balance between youth and experience, keeping together the core of the team that did the country proud in the last few years."

[simonokeeffe]

sounds like BS; wont succeed

Update

Now a white political group are mounting a legal challenge to the British High Commission over quotas