Pretoria - South Africa’s sports quotas may go all the way to the UN Human Rights Council if AfriForum and Solidarity have their way.
The two organisations announced their intentions in Pretoria on Tuesday.
This was after Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula said the government would bar at least three sporting federations from hosting international tournaments, after they failed to meet their own self-imposed transformation targets.
The new threat comes barely a few weeks after a UNHRC report slammed the country for poor handling of human rights issues. The most significant of these were the Marikana massacre of 2012 – for which no one has been prosecuted – and the state’s refusal to arrest International Criminal Court fugitive Omar al-Bashir last year.
The sports federations affected by Mbalula’s ban are the South African Rugby Union (Saru), Cricket SA, Netball SA and Athletics SA.
On Tuesday the two bodies, which have distinguished themselves fighting for pro-Afrikaner causes, said they would take legal action against this, and would even go to the UN and the International Labour Organisation to fight Mbalula’s ban, and to oppose the transformation of South Africa’s white-dominated sporting codes.
They said Mbalula’s move amounted to unfair labour practice.
Part of their strategy will include taking the case to the Labour Court, as well as lodging complaints with the UN and the international labour organisations.
AfriForum and Solidarity said their comprehensive strategy would challenge parts of the National Sports and Recreation Plan and the Transformation Charter.
Solidarity’s chief executive Dirk Hermann blamed the government for forcing sporting bodies into a transformation squeeze, one he said the two organisations were against. “They swung the balance of power in the minister’s favour, enabling him to enforce his ideology of race.”
Both organisations stated they believed there should be no political interference in sport and said selection for national sports teams should not be based on racial quotas, but rather on merit. Solidarity will also take legal steps at the local court to set aside Saru’s transformation plan.
Mbalula’s office had not responded at the time of publication.