Cape Town -
Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula, firing his latest salvo in the controversy around transformation, has warned sporting codes transformation is non-negotiable and they must “shape up or ship out”.
Penalties he could invoke, he told the media after presenting his department’s budget vote in Parliament on Friday, included withdrawing national colours so sporting codes could no longer represent South Africa at international level, deregistration of errant federations so they would effectively cease to exit and halting government funding and political support for sponsorships.
Mbalula did, however, leave the door open for the lifting of a ban on the hosting of international sporting events, although he appeared to indicate it was too late for the SA Rugby Union’s ambition to host the 2023 World Cup.
The minister announced last month he was withdrawing government support for the hosting of international events in rugby, cricket, athletics and netball because of the sports’ failure to meet agreed transformation targets.
This sparked a massive outcry and a social media storm, including a racist attack on him by Capetonian Matt Theunissen.
Athletics was later exonerated because it had met its targets.
Mbalula told the media yesterday he would meet each of the federations to review their progress. He would also take contractual commitments into account, like Cape Town’s upcoming hosting of the Rugby Sevens which had been agreed before the band.
Of a 2023 Rugby World Cup bid, he said: “You will recognise that hosting the tournament will be affected by the ban, because it is something that is coming. If there’s no movement and commitment from the boards of those federations, it is going to be impossible for us to move. The ban in totality, even retrogressively, will apply.”
Responding to Theunissen’s public apology, in which he said there was “no excuse for me using the language that I did” after having reacted to Mbalula’s ban by calling the government “a bunch of k*****s”, the minister said he had no problem with the apology but that there had to be consequences for racism.
“We don’t want to punish people because at the end of the day we draw no joy out of that,” Mbalula said.
“What is important for us is the question: ‘How do we take the nation forward?’ And he explained himself, he said he’s not a racist, he interacts with blacks and all of that.
“Now, how do we account for drunkenness, because when you are drunk the real feelings come out? You can pretend but when you are drunk you go, ‘yeah, I’ve been tolerant to this thing’, and the whole nation must be held at ransom by a drunken stupor, followed by an apology. Be sober all the time and be responsible, understand that whatever you do will have consequences.”
Mbalula was criticised by opposition parties in the debate, who accused the government of doing too little to broaden access to sport in poor communities, with the result that coaches at the elite level in codes like rugby and cricket had a limited pool from which to draw black players.
But, while acknowledging sport had to take a back seat to more urgent social priorities, the minister said there was a large enough base of talent.
He pointed to the Stormers team as an example.
Mbalula said the Treasury had agreed to set aside R300 million from the municipal infrastructure grant in the current financial year for the refurbishment and building of sports facilities at local level.
Saturday Argus