After crashing out of the World Cup at the hands of New Zealand at Twickenham on Saturday, the Springboks face a new battle when they return home.
Agency for New Agenda, the political party that made an audacious court bid to prevent the team from participating in the World Cup, has now declared #TheSpringbokMustFall.
This party’s renewed demands are set out in court papers filed in the high court in Pretoria, including a call for the Springbok emblem – historically associated with the Boks – to fall. This, plus a legal battle against the government and the South African Rugby Union (Saru) for transformation in rugby and other national sports, will be heard in the same court on February 23.
Agency for New Agenda has given the government until 2019 to transform the sport.
Former Bok coach Peter de Villiers has thrown his weight behind the application, saying he called for transformation in his time at the helm.
The application for transformation in sport in general is a follow-up to the party’s urgent application in September to prevent the Springboks from travelling to England for the World Cup. At the time, proceedings were put on hold as the Springboks were departing for the tournament.
The party has now added more demands to its initial list; it is now adamant that the Springbok emblem must go. It proposes the logo be replaced with a Protea.
The party said the lack of transformation was not only in rugby, but in other national sports teams as well. Agency for New Agenda is asking that a full bench – three judges – hear its application.
Other demands include an order declaring that government and the Saru failed to transform rugby since 1994, and that retaining the Springbok name and emblem be declared unconstitutional. The party is also still persisting in its quest to have a commission of inquiry into the transformation of the national rugby set up.
Party leader, Edward Mokhoanatse, in his supplementary affidavit filed in court, said black people had played rugby for more than 100 years, yet the sport was “exclusively reserved for the white minority”.
“The support of the present day Springboks among black communities has decreased and replaced by disappointment and antagonism. This is largely owed to disgruntlement about the lack of sufficient transformation and particularly the overwhelmingly white composition of both the team and the sport.”
The government and Saru have yet to file their responses with the court. - Pretoria New