CAPE TOWN – Trade Union Solidarity on Wednesday expressed its dissatisfaction about statements from Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa following reports over the weekend that eight South African rugby players refused to take the knee ahead of an English Premiership rugby match.
Teams in the Premiership decided to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement at club matches in England by taking the knee and wearing BLM t-shirts ahead of their games.
Following reports of a number of South African players in the Premiership who refused to take the knee, Minister Nathi Mthethwa called on SA Rugby to ‘take action’ against the eight South African players in the Sale Sharks team – most of whom are Springboks – who did not take the knee ahead of the match against Harlequins at the weekend.
Werner Human, deputy chief executive for legal matters and research at Solidarity, on Wednesday said the minister has no right to intimidate or victimise players on the basis of their support, or not, for the BLM movement.
“Such behaviour falls completely outside the ambit of the minister’s powers, and it infringes on the players’ freedom of speech, belief and religion. We are not even mentioning freedom of expression, for that matter – what the minister is trying to do here is to bring about a forced expression of speech. This can never be tolerated.”
Read: South African rugby players in England take stand against Black Lives Matter
Solidarity also pledged to ‘step in’ on behalf of any of the eight players targeted by the Minister, as well as any other sportsman or woman who are disadvantaged in practising their profession due to their refusal to support the BLM movement.
Hennie Bierman, head of the Occupational Guilds division at Solidarity, explained their stance further: “No employer may force anyone to support a political movement. Even worse, no politician may interfere in the workplace to force an employer to do so. Professional sportsmen and women are already in a particularly precarious position with regard to job security. We cannot allow their constitutional rights to be violated as well.”
Human concluded: “For the minister to consider opposition to the BLM movement to be racist is absurd. This movement and its harmful precepts and beliefs should actually be opposed because of the negative consequences it holds for all races.”
“Just because we are not prepared to bend the knee for BLM, it does not mean we refuse to grant others that freedom. What is unacceptable, however, is to victimise players because of their own choice in this regard.”
Staff Reporter