Dear Minister,

Please allow me to introduce myself.

I am a middle-aged male of European descent living in the Ekhuruleni area, for most of my life.

In that time I’ve seen and experienced MANY changes in the daily lives of both my immediate family and my fellow South African citizens.

For me personally, one of the biggest changes in my life occurred when I discovered that my “local” Rugby Club was just a few kilometres from my house, and was situated in the “previously disadvantaged” area of Edenpark.

Now Edenpark is what most people would refer to as a “coloured” area, with many of the socio-economic problems historically associated with such areas.

It has high unemployment rates, lots of gangs and alcohol abuse and lots of teenage pregnancies.

I made a decision to get involved and help the Club with some admin’ resources, and as life sometimes dictates, almost immediately was swept into a coaching role, followed a couple of months thereafter by being asked to stand for, and then being elected Chairman of the Club.

Now, I can assure you that there is NO GLAMOUR or MONEY to be gained from being elected Chairman of what is effectively a “Third Division” Rugby Club in Johannesburg.

The strain on one’s time and finances are immediate and taxing. Without the ABSOLUTE buy-in of your family, either your marriage (assuming you are married) or the Club would go south very quickly.

Sure there are some perks surrounding VIP parking for games at Ellis Park, and invites to the Presidential Suite, but they are but a small recompense for MANY hours of work every week.

What very quickly became very obvious to me was that despite the absolute fanatical Rugby nature of the coloured community in Edenpark, the Club was something of a “problem” for the Golden Lions Rugby Union (GLRU).

The player base is small, the spectators and supporters “different”, and the facilities are rubbish.

Then of course there is the issue of RACE. The Club was neither white, nor black and shunned by the “traditional” white Clubs, totally ignored, (possibly hated?) by the black Clubs.

Our head coach “Oppies” Opperman once said to me, ”My Van is te wit, en my vel is te swart”, or translated into English, “My surname is too white, and my skin is too black”, and that perhaps summed up the relationship of Edenpark Rugby Club with the GLRU and the majority of the other Johannesburg based Clubs.

Now, I don’t want to bore you, Mr Minister with the whole history of Edenpark Rugby Club and their relationship with both me and the GLRU, but suffice to say that after I “got involved”, the Club made a conscious effort to attract both “black” players from the surrounding areas of Thokoza, Katlehong, Zonkezizwe and Greenfields, as well as “white” players from areas such as Brackendowns, Albertsdal and anywhere else we could.

In short, the Club was successful and soon had a truly mixed player base, all of whom got on VERY well, and enjoyed being together and playing together.

However, things are never easy. The infrastructure remains abysmal to this day.

• No lights for training.
• Limited funding for pitch markings.
• Limited access to players for transport to training and away games.
• Poor changing and ablution facilities.

The list goes on and on, but once again Mr Minister, I don’t want to bore you with the detail.

Suffice is to say, that as a former “white” Chairman of a “coloured” Rugby Club, I can state unequivicably that “players of colour” don’t want quota based transformation.

THEY WANT DEVELOPMENT!

If the government were to develop the facilities, players, coaches, team managers, administrators and groundsmen (to name a few) at grass roots CLUB level, then TRANSFORMATION WOULD FOLLOW AS A NATURAL CONSEQUENCE.

It is my experience, that no player wants to be included in any representative side as a consequence of his skin colour, and I feel that (in Rugby at least) the school sides seen at U 13 Craven Week, U 16 Grant Kohomo Week and U 18 Craven Week are by and large fully demographically representative of the SCHOOLS THAT PLAY RUGBY in each province.

Once again, when looking at the demographics of the sides in both the Varsity Cup and Varsity Shield, there “appears” to be a racially balanced make up of most of the sides.

The problem invariably comes during the transition from School to Club and Varsity to Provincial.

Where a player lives and works (or not) dictates where he / she is able to train and play the easiest.

It’s a fact that facilities in “previously disadvantaged” areas are abysmal.

In the 5 years I was involved at MY “coloured” Rugby Club in the south of JHB, we received the following development funding:

• SARU – Nil
• GLRU – Nil
• Fury Rugby Development Programme (*) – 1 full set of playing kit (excluding boots), warm up shirts and bags for 1 side, plus a small amount of training aids per year.
• NuPAY – Paid transport for away games for one season.
• Apart from the above there was no funding over and above what the GLRU provided for EVERY Club in the province, an amount of approximately R 15 000.00 (Fifteen Thousand)

(*) Fury Rugby Development Programme was initiated to assist some 30 “development” Clubs, Primary Schools and High Schools in the Lions area and as far as I am aware is still running.

So Honourable Minister Mbalula, to get to the crux of the matter, may I suggest that instead of spewing forth vitriol about imposing penalties, removing National Colours from “offending” federations, and generally upsetting the sporting members of this once great Sporting Nation, that you remove your snout from the trough that it is currently feeding in, and drag yourself down to a few Sports Clubs in “previously disadvantaged” areas on a freezing cold winter’s evening, and engage with the players, coaches and administrators that you are so keen to “transform” into National Sports Stars.

Hear what their needs and aspirations are!

Then go back to your “dynamic and sporty” office bearers at SASCOC, (I’m sure Tubby Reddy and his handler Ramsammy couldn’t be bothered to accompany you to a “real” Sports Club) and FORCE them to PUT SOME MONEY INTO GRASS ROOTS SPORTS DEVELOPMENT!

Hell, perhaps the three of you could even siphon some money from the Billions of Rands that have been misappropriated by the organs of state over the last 5 years. I’m sure a few hundred million wouldn’t even be missed.

In closing Mr Minister, let me assure you that the threats you have made in the media in the last few days will in all likelihood not even be thought about by the vast majority of those playing, coaching and administering sports at grass roots level in our country’s “previously disadvantaged” areas.

For the most part, they couldn’t give a hoot about “removing National Colours from offending Federations”. They just want to practice and play their sport, whatever the code, on decent fields and courts, with sufficient lighting to prevent injuries, sufficient hot water to shower afterwards, and enough funding for a “half decent” team strip and transport to their away games.

Of course, this reality may not fit in with the real reasons that you made your utterances recently, but I put it to you that it is far closer to the truth than you will ever be able to comprehend.

Finally let me make an open invitation to you to visit Edenpark Rugby Club to see the true face of grass roots development Rugby.

I can guarantee you a passion filled evening of Rugby. I can’t guarantee your safety though, you’ll have to take care of that yourself.

Please contact the Webmaster of this website if you would like to take me up on the invitation and I am sure he will pass on your reaction.

Yours sincerely,

A concerned sports lover