SARU CEO, Jurie Roux
SA Rugby on Monday acknowledged the findings of the Eminent Persons’ Group report on Transformation for 2014 / 2015 and the sanction imposed by Fikile Mbalula, Minister for Sports and Recreation.
SA Rugby, as well as Cricket South Africa, Netball SA and Athletics South Africa, had revoked their privilege of “hosting and bidding for major and mega international tournaments in South Africa as a consequence of… not meeting their own set transformation targets”, said the minister. The decision would be reconsidered at the next reporting of the EPG, which is expected in November.
“We understand and support the Minister’s urgency in addressing the issue of transformation,” said Jurie Roux, CEO of SA Rugby.
“There is no question that we have more work to do and we could be moving faster, but our sport has undergone a major overhaul in how we do business and how we measure ourselves in the past 2 or 3 years and we have definitely made great progress.
“Transformation is a key strategic imperative for SA Rugby to remain competitive and to survive in the sports landscape in our country.
“Our barometre for 2015 shows that we have achieved our target in 11 out of 13 dimensions as agreed with government.
“We have made further progress on and off the field in 2016 to date and over the coming months our commitment to transformation will become even more evident.
“We are confident that the suspension will be lifted at the next reporting of the EPG.”
Roux confirmed that the minister’s announcement did not relate to existing international events such as Vodacom Super Rugby, the Springboks’ Incoming Test Series, The Rugby Championship or the HSBC Cape Town Sevens.
He said that SA Rugby planned to engage the minister on the organisation’s hopes of hosting the 2023 Rugby World Cup to fully understand the implications.
The bidding process is due to start next month but will not conclude until next year, by which time SA Rugby hopes to have had the right to host reinstated.
sport24
The most amusing information is that the decision to suspend was made on 2014/2015 report. That report would have used data gathered during 2013/2014 period. It therefore ignored the latest efforts by SARU to improve transformation. That means a critical decision was made on old information.
Thus our emotionally unstable minister admits he is a top class useless decision maker.
On News24 there is a write-up that confirms the dates of the bidding events.
They also speculates that SA cannot bid for the 2023 world cup. However, our emotionally unstable minister reckoned by lifting the ban by the middle of next year that SA can still be in time to bid.
I myself disagree, D-day is June 2016. To confirm SA will continue in the bidding process they need the support of the government.
The Minister is not the only person to blame for this debacle. SARU knew for at least 10 years about the transformation targets and that there might be sanctions if they dont reach it. Despite this knowledge they were dead quiet when H M gave Rudy Paige only 3 minutes during the WC for example….
Howzit Rob. I think you make a point. However, the government, of which the minister is very much a part, plays a key role in developing black talent at school level and could/would play a key role in keeping them in the game. Many simply bow out prematurely due to financial constraints and the primary need to feed themselves and their families. This is long before SARU get their paws on this pool of talent. They probably only get to work with but a fraction of what is out there. In support of this argument, witness what you see on ‘the box’ when watching Craven Week rugby and the racial mix in the competing teams. Some are incredibly talented but do we see them at senior level after they’re done with school. If reports are accurate, they simply drop out of rugby altogether. Rugby can be a career in similar fashion to what many university degrees are designed to deliver. Maybe they should be part of the -study-loan’ system applicable to the latter. I’ll bet good money many of these boys would stay in the game.
@ Tassies:
Tassies, this is a question I have been asking myself for a while. What happens to most of the young black talent we see at school level? If the provincial scouts can sign these guys and then hold on to them till they have progressed beyond age group level, then the problems will be resolved. However, I think the scouts need to have set transformation targets that they have to work with. With the talent that we have across all ethnic groups in SA, we shouldn’t struggle to meet transformation goals at all.
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