S. Africa Eyes Racial Equality in Sports
by Clare Nullis
Associated Press Writer
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- Trying to overcome its legacy of apartheid, South Africa wants to achieve full racial equality in sports by 2010 - the year the country hosts soccer's World Cup.
Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile said Wednesday the government will intensify programs to boost the number of black players in traditionally white sports.
"We cannot leave transformation to the whims of market forces," Stofile said. "Market forces are not sympathetic to the poor."
Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu recently criticized the policy as little more than tokenism, and his comments stirred a political storm. One senior politician accused the former archbishop of treason.
Progress has been made in breaking down racial barriers in most sports since the country's first all-race elections in 1994, but many poor black and mixed-race athletes are denied the chance to compete at top levels because of insufficient funding and training opportunities.
In an interview with The Star on Feb. 21, Tutu rejected racial preference policies in sport as "tokenism" and "an insult to all those involved." He said the best way to integrate traditionally white games like rugby and cricket was to invest in better facilities in disadvantaged communities.
Butana Komphela, chairman of the Parliamentary portfolio committee on sport, called Tutu's views "treasonous ... and tantamount to undermining the spirit of the new constitution."
The exchange prompted an outcry in parliament and the national media.
On Wednesday, the South African Council of Churches asked the governing African National Congress to take action against Komphela. It also pleaded for more "temperate language," saying there should be room for a diversity of viewpoints in South Africa's democracy.
Stofile tried to calm tempers Wednesday, saying that providing training and infrastructure where they do not exist was also part of the transformation.
Soccer traditionally has been the favorite sport of the country's black majority, with cricket and rugby only slowly shedding their white image. When the World Cup comes to South Africa in 2010, it will mark the first time soccer's showcase has been played in Africa.
Cricket leaders hope to field at least seven nonwhite players in the 2007 World Cup. The squad for South Africa's final one-day international against Zimbabwe on Wednesday included four.
But it is rugby that is proving most resistant to change. Recent international squads have typically featured about three nonwhite players.
Brian van Rooyen, president of the South Africa's Rugby Football Union, last week infuriated the government by failing to turn up for a meeting with the parliamentary committee on sport to discuss integration and infighting among officials.
Stofile warned that government backing for SARFU's bid to host the rugby World Cup in 2011 would depend on it doing more to transform the sport's racial profile.
"We want to sit down and discuss what to do before 2011 so that you do not embarrass us when we play England, and England looks more like a South African team than South Africa itself," Stofile said.
He called the French team that played Wales last weekend "more cosmopolitan" than the current South African team.
"And that is a scandal," he said.
The African American Perspective
www.CaraLive.com
CaraLive@msn.com
by Clare Nullis
Associated Press Writer
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- Trying to overcome its legacy of apartheid, South Africa wants to achieve full racial equality in sports by 2010 - the year the country hosts soccer's World Cup.
Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile said Wednesday the government will intensify programs to boost the number of black players in traditionally white sports.
"We cannot leave transformation to the whims of market forces," Stofile said. "Market forces are not sympathetic to the poor."
Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu recently criticized the policy as little more than tokenism, and his comments stirred a political storm. One senior politician accused the former archbishop of treason.
Progress has been made in breaking down racial barriers in most sports since the country's first all-race elections in 1994, but many poor black and mixed-race athletes are denied the chance to compete at top levels because of insufficient funding and training opportunities.
In an interview with The Star on Feb. 21, Tutu rejected racial preference policies in sport as "tokenism" and "an insult to all those involved." He said the best way to integrate traditionally white games like rugby and cricket was to invest in better facilities in disadvantaged communities.
Butana Komphela, chairman of the Parliamentary portfolio committee on sport, called Tutu's views "treasonous ... and tantamount to undermining the spirit of the new constitution."
The exchange prompted an outcry in parliament and the national media.
On Wednesday, the South African Council of Churches asked the governing African National Congress to take action against Komphela. It also pleaded for more "temperate language," saying there should be room for a diversity of viewpoints in South Africa's democracy.
Stofile tried to calm tempers Wednesday, saying that providing training and infrastructure where they do not exist was also part of the transformation.
Soccer traditionally has been the favorite sport of the country's black majority, with cricket and rugby only slowly shedding their white image. When the World Cup comes to South Africa in 2010, it will mark the first time soccer's showcase has been played in Africa.
Cricket leaders hope to field at least seven nonwhite players in the 2007 World Cup. The squad for South Africa's final one-day international against Zimbabwe on Wednesday included four.
But it is rugby that is proving most resistant to change. Recent international squads have typically featured about three nonwhite players.
Brian van Rooyen, president of the South Africa's Rugby Football Union, last week infuriated the government by failing to turn up for a meeting with the parliamentary committee on sport to discuss integration and infighting among officials.
Stofile warned that government backing for SARFU's bid to host the rugby World Cup in 2011 would depend on it doing more to transform the sport's racial profile.
"We want to sit down and discuss what to do before 2011 so that you do not embarrass us when we play England, and England looks more like a South African team than South Africa itself," Stofile said.
He called the French team that played Wales last weekend "more cosmopolitan" than the current South African team.
"And that is a scandal," he said.
The African American Perspective
www.CaraLive.com
CaraLive@msn.com
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