By Sapa-AFP and Mike Greenaway
Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile on Tuesday ruled out racial quotas for national sports teams.
"Quotas are out," Stofile told the parliamentary sports committee.
"Let us put our resources into the development of talent."
The presence of only two black players in the Rugby World Cup-winning team's starting line-up, 13 years after the end of white minority rule, has led to a new bout of soul-searching about how to ensure the progress of more black players.
Politicians, including President Thabo Mbeki, have reiterated the need for true racial transformation in a country with a 90 percent black population.
But Stofile said quotas were not the answer, as a failed experiment in South African rugby showed a few years ago.
"Quotas were used only for window dressing for international consumption," he said. "Those who have the money go and buy the players instead of developing the boys where they are."
Stofile said black children, mostly poor, needed proper nutrition and facilities to help them develop the bone structure and muscle tone required for sports participation from an early age.
"We must kill the myth that black people cannot play certain sporting codes because they are black," the minister told MPs.
About R200-million would be needed for this purpose annually, said Stofile, who argued for the creation of a national developmental rugby squad.
"We (the government) are not going to decide who must be on the team.
"All we are saying is: expose everybody, give them an opportunity."
Meanwhile, Springbok coach Jake White has welcomed the late interest of Dick Muir in the position White will soon be vacating and believes it would be short-sighted of the South African Rugby Union if they don't add the Sharks coach to the current short list of four when the Presidents Council meets on Thursday.
White pointed out that he himself had not been on the original short list for the job four years ago.
"If there had not been flexibility back then I would never have got the opportunity to coach the Boks, never mind be part of a World Cup-winning squad," White said.
"I think it is exciting that Dick, as a former Springbok, and a Super 14 coach, wants to coach the Springboks.
"He understands the ethos of the Boks, he has been through the system and if he was the successful applicant there would be valuable continuity for the squad."
White said that Muir would add value to the Boks "as would Allister Coetzee (White's assistant coach) and Heyneke Meyer (the Bulls coach)."
The President of the KwaZulu-Natal Rugby Union, Peter Hassard, who will be part of the Presidents Council that hears Muir's case for late inclusion, said that it would be "crazy" to ignore the credentials of a coach of Muir's calibre.
"We want the best man for the job," Hassard said.
"We have seen what Dick has done with the Sharks in taking them from the bottom of the Super 12 to the top of the Super 14 and I think that in principle we (the Presidents Council) need to look at what he has to offer."
Hassard confirmed that the executive of the KZNRU on Monday night approved Muir's request for permission to apply for the job.
Muir on Tuesday was asked by Saru deputy president Mike Stofile to confirm to him in writing his intention of applying for the position.
And Muir says he has done that.